Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

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

‘The Network’ is a documentary

which explores the way that social
networking sites affect teenager’s lives.
We aimed to connect with viewers aged 13
– 21 too show social network effects
people such as themselves. It gives the
reasons why teenagers are affected and
extreme cases of cyber bullying and
addiction that will interest the target
audience. We chose to do a social documentary as we thought it would be the most
interesting to the audience. It was formal and allowed us to show the main affects of
social network on teenagers.
However we also have a secondary audience of people connected to teenagers such as
parents, teachers, and student counsellors. We made it appealing to them by putting in
an expert interview to get the professional view on the topic.

Channel 4
We choose Channel 4 because we believed it to show a lot
of documentaries like our one that attracts audience from 15 – 21
years of age. This being similar to our audience they would more
likely to watch a documentary if it was on this channel.

Before making our documentary we viewed and

analysed a number of different documentaries and
one that really caught our eye was “Are the Net
Police Coming for You”. This allowed us to gain
many of the codes and conventions used in a
documentary like that. This is why we used it as a
template and tried to transfer the style of that
documentary into ours.

DOCUMENTARY CONTENT

The content within the documentary is a controversial topic and is in the news today.
The importance of the topic means there will always be conflict involved, this is what
appeals to the audience. It also informs others of what the extent to the topic is and the
mo
The channel 4 ident, comes with the re
documentary being on this channel. This seri
gave us a chance to introduce our ous
documentary. This is the first point of sid
which you can get your audience to e
watch the program. of
it.
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

To start we used the “Are the Net Police Coming for you” style opening. We did this
as we believed it to show a
serious informative side to the
documentary, which we believe
ours is. However ours as looks
at the other side and shows
most teenagers are not affected
by social network. It also
shows the use of common
codes and conventions within
other media products.
The opening to the show however does
not follow codes and conventions and
we are very pleased with the gamble
we took. It gives the viewer a taste of
what the topic is and shows a
difference to the normal
Title sequences. This challenges the
conventions of the title
on of “Are the Net
Police Coming for you”.

Before the title sequence we used a montage of images and voiceover to explain and
show off the program, this was also done in “Are the Net Police Coming for you”.
This was to explain and show how interesting the topic is just in case they weren’t
already interested. This is also a good
common code and convention that
many documentaries have.

Expert Interviews
This is also a common
code and convention and used in a
number of documentaries. This is
very much for the second
audience of anyone that has a
career or interest in teenager’s Captions
lives. It gives crucial expert Another code and
analysis on the topic which grips convention is using
the viewer and makes it captions. This is to
interesting. identify the people
being interviewed.
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

Voxpops
We went into the town of Solihull to
find out what general everyday teenagers think
about the topic. This certainly gives the viewer
something to relate to as that could be them
being interviewed.
Interviews
We arranged a couple of interviews. One with a
student that is a regular facebook and social network
user. This interests the audience as it is someone their
age telling them their experiences of being addicted to
facebook. The other is a person who has been cyber
bullied through these sites, which again shows a
common code and convention as we have shown the
extremes of the affects on teenagers a, which is the point
of the whole program.

Establishing Shots
This is a part of every documentary, as all audiences want
to know where the documentaries
are set or where they visit. We
used these effectively while the
voice over introduced the next
part.

Using Sound
The Background music we used did not relate well to the topic in hand. Nor
did it go well with the timing of the documentary and it wasn’t slow paced. After
analysing the different professional documentaries we should have seen the pattern in
the type of documentary and the background music.

RADIO TRAILER CONTENT

Our radio trailer last for 30 seconds. This is like many radio trailers as if it is too
long then the audience will lose interest. We used many common conventions of a
normal radio trailer that we learnt during research and planning.
We used a up beat sound to go with the
quick paced trailer, this allowed us to
play with the voice and make sure it
matched the music.
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

We also inserted bits from the documentary to give

them an idea of what’s to come in the documentary.
The presenter is consistent and informs the listener of
all the major information like the channel it is on and
the times. It also gives the aim of the documentary.
We also used conventions of putting sounds in that
are common to the subject (e.g. typing on a
keyboard).

MAGAZINE LISTINGS PAGE CONTENT

Our magazine listings page shows consistent theme throughout all three tasks. It
shows many common conventions within it compared to a professional one. The
double page picture is
common in attracting the
reader; this also means that
when they watch the program
they will see the continuous
theme throughout the tasks.
Our listings page also shows
the title within the picture,
which is common in
magazines. All the
information bout the
documentary had to well presented and interesting to
read. This is why we have used a lot of bold and a few grab quotes to keep it
professional and readable but attractive.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

DOCUMENTARY
The documentary aimed to show the audience the effect of social networking
on teenagers today. We aim to do that by using a number on common codes and
conventions and making the documentary interesting and appealing to the audience
through professionalism.

RADIO TRAILER
The radio trailer is aimed to advertise the show in
such a way that people want to watch it but also relate to it,
this is why we put small snippets of audio to tempt them to
watch the show. This is a quick attractive summary of the
Documentary.

MAGAZINE LISTINGS PAGE

The magazine listings page is aimed to relate very
much to the documentary, which is why we used a still
image from the documentary. It also continues with the dark
theme of the title shot. This gives consistency throughout all the
tasks. Due to the lack of teenagers reading magazines we needed
to make sure it caught the eye of those who do.

Combining the Products Together

A key factor when linking all three of the
products together is consistency, throughout all of our
products I believe we did well when it came to
consistency as we were able to give it a certain image
that if people saw they would know what program was
coming on. The similar colours and same picture
reflect the topic well and is why we chose this picture
to be at the forefront of our products. The
radio trailer also provides this threw the type
of music and tone of voice used. This is
done creating an image in the listener’s head
of the image to the left.

Quotes are taken from the documentary and

incorporated within both the radio trailer
and the magazine listening page. This gives
the listener or reader as taster of the things
involved within the documentary and how real people are affected by social
networking.
We also related sounds and images to make
common noises to do with things related to the
topic like typing on a keyboard.
This was very effective in the
radio trailer and again linked
with the documentary.
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

However linking the products isn’t easy, we had to make it available to all our target
audience and still interesting to our secondary audience. This made it a difficult
decision process in which we had to select appropriate sounds and images to catch the
attention of our target audience.

The effectiveness of the magazine listings page and the radio trailer
had to be good as not many teenagers listen to radio trailers and not
many read magazine listening page, so the few that do we really
needed to grab. Next time we will have to look into doing
advertising that attracts to the target audience.

Overall
All three of the products link well with each other through many mediums.
They all show off the aim of the documentary and the extent into which it goes into
the subject. It also shows off the popular interests of the target audience towards this
documentary.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience for the documentary was:

Teenagers
The ages between 15 – 21
All Races
All social classes and backgrounds
Both sexes
British people

The target audience we selected for the

documentary allowed us to make sure the
footage we filmed reached the audiences we
wanted. We picked the audience to allow all
teenagers that use social networking which
covers a wide range of sexes, races and social
classes. This being a British document on
Channel 4 we used British people which are
good as it covers wide range of ethnic
backgrounds.

Although we had our main target audience we

also considered other key people that will watch
our documentary. These are people that are often
involved with teenagers and are interested how
it affects them. This is such people as Parents,
Social Workers, Student Counsellors and
Teachers. These all would have an interest in the
documentary as they are all closely linked with
the primary target audience.
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

Focus Group
We used a variation of our target audience to watch the documentary and give
us feedback through a questionnaire.
Throughout the film the viewers will be rating us between ‘Excellent’ and ‘Poor’ on
different areas of the documentary.

The Questionnaire was helpful as it allowed the target

audience to give a truthful analysis of the documentary and give us areas for
improvement and strengths of the documentary.

Questionnaire Results and Findings

The questionnaire was to see how well we connected with our target audience and
would they watch it. The aim
of our documentary was to
show how social networking
affects young people today.

We asked for an overall

rating of our documentary out
of 5 options. The results show
that the majority gave it the
middle mark which was
“Good”. The results also
allow us to see how
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

successful we were when trying to show the aim of the documentary. Although we
got some positive feedback, we obviously didn’t reach all the target audience as we
got “Satisfactory” and “Poor” marks. Although results show that the documentary was
liked, it shows that we haven’t covered the whole of our target audience and didn’t
interest them enough to make them think it was a good documentary.
From this questionnaire we gathered many strengths on which the audience likes,
however we noticed a number of repeated weaknesses that the target audience put.
This could help us improve next time.

STRENTGHS

• Topic Of Documentary –
The results showed that the
topic for the documentary was popular. They commented on
how it interested them and related to their lives.
With billions of people on social networking sites
it’s common that people want to hear about peoples
problems they occur while on them. With teenagers being the prime target and the
media portraying them as addicted to their computers because of it.

100% of the audience we questioned

answered “Good” or higher for the
appropriateness of the documentary for
the target audience.
• S
o
u
n
d Quality –
Sound quality was also a reoccurring
comment that was made about the documentary. We were
very careful with our sound quality as we know that if the
quality of sound isn’t right then the documentary wont
sound professional. We ensured that the microphone was
far enough away so it wasn’t too loud and muffled. Also
made sure it was always quite around so there was no
background noise.

• Editing –
The editing we did on the documentary, paid off when the results
showed us that the majority thought it was good and it allowed the to
understand the meaning better. We used a number of transitions to
keep the documentary flowing. It also allowed us to keep in time
with the voice over.
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

• Voiceover –
A main weakness of ours that was mentioned in the feedback was the
voiceover. This is also reflected in our only “Poor” marks on the
questionnaire came under professionalism of the documentary. The
voiceover thought it had a solid script however it was too quick and
there were a few stutters.
Improve: To improve this next time I would allow more time for the
voiceover to be recorded, this is so we can get it perfect as everyone will make
mistakes. I would also link it more carefully with the storyboard; this then gives us the
solid structure of a voiceover and allows for the voiceover and documentary to link
throughout.

• Shot Selection –
In the questionnaire we
asked to rate the filming/shooting of
appropriate material. The results show that
this wasn’t done well. The further
feedback gave us more detail in there
wasn’t enough variation of shots used
within the documentary.
Improve: To improve this we will have to
not stick directly to the storyboard, this
didn’t allow us to really be creative and
give a wide variation of shots to the
audience, and this would have kept them
interested. Although it was good that we
were focused on this one goal we didn’t consider what the audience wanted when it
came to the shots.
• Quality of Filming –
The quality of filming was another thing that the target audience
believed to be a weakness of our documentary. The
shot selection was also said to be an issue.
Comments about this however we believed to be
harsh as the things said were angles we were trying
to come from. However this must be a weakness as
it did not appeal to our target audience.
Improve: I think this needs to be done in Research
and Planning. We needed to personally ask our
target audience what they like to see in a
documentary, shot wise. We went to focus on
people’s body parts like their mouth and hands to
giver affect and keep the audience interested. However this was commented as
“unprofessional”. Next time we will have to put more Research and planning into this
area.

• Music –
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

We knew this was a weakness of the documentary and the target audience did not
miss out on it. Our music was poor as it was a very last minute choice. This is due to
the original music we had was found to be copyright.
Improve: To improve this we will take more time and care into selecting the
background music. This is a very important aspect of any
documentary especially when attracting people of today’s
generation as music is such a big industry.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and

research, planning and evaluation stages?

Thought the process of creating our documentary I have used a wide variety of
media technologies, this has allowed me to develop my skills within these programs
and improve my documentary, radio trailer and listings page.

Research and Planning

I used a range of technologies while research and planning:

A crucial technology that contributed to my research and planning was the Internet.
This was a vital piece of technology as it allowed us to gather information, stats,
statistics, examples and analysis that would eventually contribute to our documentary
and radio trailer.
I used many sites, the main ones being google and
youtube. Google was helpful in finding stats and
statitics bout social networking. It also allowed us to
research into the topic we used for our documentary
and stories in the news about it. Youtube was very helpful
when researching products similar to the one we were
creating. This was important as it allowed us to access
documentaries such as “Panorama – Are the Net Police
Coming for You”. This allowed us to analyse documentaries
to find out common codes and conventions for media products.
I also used other key websites like BBC news to look at stories of social
network stories that have happened recently to get an idea of what is happening today
in the news. This also allowed us to compare to other news websites to compare
stories and previous stories to see how the problem with social networks has escalate.
Another websites such as the colleges Moodle allowed me to listen to examples of
radio trailers.

In order to complete research and planning we used Apple Macs. This allowed us to
draw up story boards to give a general idea of the structure to our documentary. To do
this I used Comic Life. This allowed us to get our ideas down and show it in order.
However these ideas would change but it does show they allowed us to develop our
ideas to improve the documentary.
To do this we need still images of ideas of clips that will go in the documentary do
this we used a Digital Camera. This technology allowed me to make ideas into
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

images on page. This helped with our filming as we had the intial ideas which we
could then develop on. The images taken allowed to create the storyboard and helped
when we ran out of ideas.

Final Cut Express

We used the Final Cut Express program to edit our

fiulming and create our documentary. I had never used
this program beofre and found it invaluable in making
our documentary professional and allowing us to create
a good documentary.

The Basics
There were many basic
things you had to learn before
putting in transitions and doing the
complicated modifications to the documentary. Firstly we need
to log and transfer the images into Final Cut Express (FCE). This
meant choosing the clips we wanted for our documentary and
transferring it into FCE.

The top half had all your logged and transferred clips on the left. These were all
unedited so if you made a mistake or wanted a different part to a clip then you would
take it from their. The others are the editing screen and the final documentary screen.
Video

The video layout gave us the opportunity to see where transitions would best we
placed. This also allowed to show where long clips were and gave us a chance to put
other clips on top of them to make them more interesting.

Audio
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

The layered set out of the audio was extremely help full especially when it cam to
sound levels. It also showed if any audio was cut short or over lapping. This again
allowed us to make sound bridges and time the music to lower when the voiceover or
an interviewer is talking.

Cutting Clips
There were two screens in FCE, one was for editing and the other was the
actual documentary. If you did not
want parts of clips then you could
just “mark in and out” the parts you
did. An example of this on the left
shows a part where the person is
looking down. We didn’t want this
so we just marked the bit out we
did want and the result is shown
the right box. This enabled us to
get the good parts of every clip and
cut out the bits we didn’t want.

Captions
Throughout the
documentary we had
various interviews. In order
for viewers to understand
who they are and what part
they play in the
documentary, we added
captions. These were
clearly displayed the first
time the person appeared.
This was a simple process
and makes it much more
professional.
Transitions
This aspect of our documentary we found the hardest to do as we had to
get the timing right and use the transitions in the right place. We used
them in the end to represent a new section, which gave the documentary
a nice flow but then viewers will know that the topic has changed.

Overall
For the first time using this program I was impressed by how it was able
to create our documentary exactly how it was in our heads. It enabled us to edit our
shots into a professional documentary.

GarageBand
We used GarageBand to make the radio trailer to our
documentary. This was a simple program and made
our radio trailer very appealing to our audience.
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

Music
On GarageBand we were able
to make our own music. To
do this I mixed two of their
default tracks. The positive
feedback from our target
audience made the rest of the radio
trailer easy to make and time.
The complete radio trailer was 30
seconds long with varying sound
levels. We were able to decide how
loud the sound levels were. Also in
GarageBand it allowed us to import
varies audio parts from the
documentary. This gives them a
taster of what’s to come.

Overall
I have used GarageBand before and was therefore more acquainted with it, however I
was able to import audio from a video into the program. I was able to make my own
audio track and give the audience what they wanted.

Comic Life

Lastly we used Comic Life to

create our story board. This was
key as the handwritten version did
not give us the same visual image
as this does. It allowed a visual
image with an explanation of how
our documentary plans out.

Burning to Disk

At the end after completing both the documentary and the radio
trailer we had to burn it to disk. This simply meant that we
Nick Turvey A2 Media Evaluation

converted the radio trailer and documentary into a suitable format for the disk and all
computers, and burn it onto the disk.