My Documentary- School life, From A girl's perspective

Evaluation Question 4

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

Within my documentary, I have developed a new understanding of technology as I have learnt to research and understand how the technology of radio works and editing skills within iMovie. Before starting this product this year I did not understand how to use the rado equipment but however studied and researched on how to use radio and this helped me to learn quickly when using the equipment.
I researched different technologies to help my final product. The technologies that I researched were voiceovers that can be used to be put over images such professional views. By including these it creates and constructs meaning and purpose for the documentary making the documentary feel professional. Voiceovers make the documentary feel a sense of reality as if it is happening now. I also used legends on top of voiceovers to help move the narrative on from one point to the next.

Audiences expectations of documentaries have changed due to things becoming more easily constructed, an audience do not know if what they are seeing is entirely real or truthful through technology manipulation and by manipulation and changing perspectives of documentaries the audience now expect documentaries to have good story lines rather than being exact.  I researched how technology can manipulate the eye through the use of different editing techniques and cutting out images that the journalists do not want the audience to see, bias views.

 When editing my documentary I used iMovie to ensure that I got the best possible footage and editing transitions. I used slow motion in parts of my documentary to emphasise and reflect on the negative images and footage. In addition I also used transitions to ensure that my product ran smoothly and did not jump from one cut to another. These technologies of slow motion, helps to reinforce the negative images rather than distracting the audience from the truth. I used this to show that the documentary is truth rather than cutting the issues such as vandalism out of the footage.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you leaned from your audience feedback?
Our group understood that our audience feedback was one of the most important features of our production to consider if we wanted our film to work effectively to our target audience. In our early stages of planning, we briefly discussed which type of target audience we wanted to reach. We researched horror movie goers and ultimately concluded that the best target audience were teenagers and young adults (14-20).

I decided that I should issue out a questionnaire amongst my fellow students to gain further information on what elements of a typical documentary appealed most to my target audience. I gained a rough idea of what I wanted to achieve, but the results helped me to further realise my initial ideas and also new ones.

From the questionnaires that I conducted in my audience feedback, I learnt that my coursework has potential to be creative but however lacked creativity until the end.

Many people had told me that they had liked the documentary but there were some parts in which they didn't....

Evaluation Question 2

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

One ancillary products that I created to go alongside my documentary was a radio podcast. I had to research and listen to a variety of radio stations locally and globally to allow me to follow conventions of jingles. I also had to research the frequency which radio is recorded at which is 44100 MHZ/16 Bit. This was essential to know to follow timings appropriately to stick to regulations. Regulation is there to try and stop offencive comments towards individuals or a group.

When listening and researching jingles I had to listen out for the clarity, pitch and dialect that  podcast used to attract an audience, I therefore had to follow this and try to capture my target audience on the radio.
Dialect was also necessary to understand the characteristics of language that is used on the radio and that can be recognised within certain groups/regions of people. Males and females have different gender representations within the radio and males seem to have dominance/superiority in a radio station.  

Another ancillary product that I created was a poster. I had to research and look at a number of poster and to create mind maps around them picking out the necessary information that is common within all posters These include the big, bold and clear writing, pictures that are appropriate with the subject, information on the programme such as the channel or shop the product is sold or seen on.
These conventions were essential to use to get the best possible advert that I could create. Without researching this information I would not have been able to understand the conventions that all adverts use. 
These conventions were essential to use to get the best possible posters and podcast that I could create. Without researching this information I would not have been able to understand the conventions that all posters and podcast use.



 

Evaluation Question 1

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

Throughout my production I research different documentary styles to construct, and create a understanding for my own documentary. The documentary "School life-From a girls" constructs a feel understanding but also confusion around these young Lady's and how the think about others around them. This is a contextual piece and relevant to the times. The purpose of my piece was to underpin an awareness for my target audience 14-19.

However, by using effects like slow motion and voice-overs reconstruct the documentary and challenges the way in which the audience create meaning. Some audiences will feel sympathy for the girls and believe their behaviour is routed from coming to a boys sixth form and and T.V. programmes, however others will feel confused and feel that the girls young age and unawareness of the "Real World" is blocking how they should feel for example two of the girls I interviewed said they didn't like boy because of...

1. The way they acted made them dislike able.
2. And their aggressive behaviour has rubbed of me.

Nevertheless both views from the audience are challenged and both have the same underlying message. This can be shown through a graph that was conducted from my questionnaire.

In addition I also subverted certain conventions such as the jump clips coming to the end of the documentary and the music I used. This can be explained through the uses and gratification theory. The audience can make choices about what they did when consuming texts. Individuals actively consume texts for a variety of reasons and in different ways. Therefore suggested that media texts had a function for individuals and society which in my documentary provided surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission.

However this theory was expanded by me as I stated that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes:

• Diversion – escape from everyday problems and routine. ( in my documentary drink is the diversion)
• Personal relationships – using the medis for emotional and other interaction (interviews with the girls)
• Personal Identity – finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts (audience reactions)
• Surveillance – Information which could be useful for living (a child’s health can be watched upon by the audience)

One documentary style and technique that I concentrated on and researched thoroughly was cinema verite to allow my documentary to follow and develop documentary styles. I researched cinema verite because I believed it was neccessary to understand about the ‘truth cinema’ and was essential to my product to find the truth and motifs behind why girls may behave in a boys school.

Many different codes and conventions are used within documentaries and I tried to challenge these by using a variety of camera angles, jump shots within the documentary and interviews that are typical of the documentary style. These were challenged by using different background light on the interviews making Irma angelic from the olive green background.

Ancillary piece-Radio

This is my Radio ancillary piece:

Ancillary piece-Poster

This is my poster for my ancillary piece:

Poster ideas

Because I am making a documentary, there were not too many posters I could look at in and around my school so doing research at home and in my own time really helped.

After speaking to my media teacher  he told me to keep things simple because most documentaries dont have much on show.

The Script - Nothing

Asher Roth - Dope Shit

This is a cool party tone, when your getting ready to just go and meet friends, you would want to listen to a cool, low base and not too much going on at once.

CASPA & MR HUDSON - Love Never Dies (Back For The First Time)

The meaning of this song is straight forward, people never change and if they do it maybe for the worst, I added this to the part of Clarissa changing to point out the fact that she may have gone against what she had said two weeks prior to the second meeting we had.

Birdy - Shelter

To end my documentary this was a soft and calm ending, and because Birdy is a young smart and talented woman, having her song here completed my documentary.

Music- Non-diegetic sound

The music i pick i felt best describes young people, hip, funky and with a beat which gets you in a lock.
I went through a few tracks on my phone and on my laptops and selected a playlist and from there knew how I wanted my documentary to sound.

E-Mail from EMI (Lighting-Problems) clip

Lighting

As also in other forms of filming lighting will have to be the most important part of capturing main part of your clip. Lighting can make or break your film/documentary, if its too dark the viewer could become disinterested and if its too light it may hurt their eyes.

Lighting-Problems

I did not come across too many problems whiles filming, but at one stage while talking to Sara, the background looked "burned" (strong sunlight) thus making her look darker and the background brighter.
When Clarissa and I were filming at Chelsea Riverside Walk we were against time as I did not know what time the sun would set, but luck for me all went well and even had time to spend to play around with the camera.
At Clarissa campus her bedroom light was far too dim so I told her to leave her bathroom light on, so adding more light into the room.
Below you can see the light problems I had.

Camera-JVC Everio GZ-HD40

Having used the camera the year before, I was accustomed to it and had no problems whiles filing, the only new thing about it that i did not use last last year was the auto focus and manual focus bottoms.
At one stage of filming I pushed the manual focus bottom thus making the colour scheme different from a natural light to a artificial in door light.

Voiceovers

Many documentaries have voice over to fill in blank spaces when no one is having a conversation, and most also do this to explaining what is going on, voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic) is used in a radio, television production, film making, theatre, or other presentations. The voice-over may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor. below is a picture of me making my voice overs for my documentary.

My shot list

I understand that documentary film making have different conventions applied to it, in terms of framing, compositions and the types of shots commonly used. Below are the shots i used in making my documentary...

• Close-up
• Zoom
• Long-shot
• Mid-long shot
• Mid-shot
• Extreme long shot
• Establishing shot
• Mid-close up shot
• Pan
• Low angle
• High angle
• Low canted angle
• Side angle
• Track

Target Audience Task



These are the questions I will be asking my target audience.



Target Audience 1

In my early stages of planning, I briefly discussed with my media teacher which type of target audience I wanted to reach. We researched documentaries and ultimately concluded that the best target audience were teenagers and young adults (14-21). After I have edited my clip I will show it to people around that age group and I will also record them for their feedback.

Microphones

During the filming outside, to minimise other background sounds (wind, footsteps and people talking) I use a detachable microphone. After looking over at my first draft I found out that there was far too much background sound which could distract the viewer from the aim of my documentary.

Audio (sound)

Audio in any form of media work will always come across problems and difficulties if it people talking, footsteps, wind and music. My first difficulty was that my voice at the start of the filming was quite low since I was battling with the wind and feedback from mobile phones. Sounds related to wind are incredibly difficult to mute and avoid if you have everything turned down while editing. I found out how to set up each audio adjustment to hear the music, voices, voice overs and SFX, but in doing so it has made other sounds louder e.g. when i was having a one on one with the camera the song playing over powered me thus taking away the affect i wanted to give, but later on during my editing and feedback from my teacher i was able to work around this to blend in the music and voice. 

Research- Cost

Whilst filming my documentary, I incurred financial cost as I had to travel from different locations. For example, I travelled from Clapham Junction to Angel Islington. Another financial cost also included the costume I wore throughout the film, because i didnt feel like my usual attire fitted in, with what my media product depicted and I felt that what i wore through filming portrayed professionalism.

Research- Ethical behavior

Documentary filmmakers identified themselves as creative artists for whom ethical behaviours are at the core of their projects. Their comments can be grouped into three conflicting sets of responsibilities: to their subjects, their viewers, and their own artistic vision and production exigencies.

When I was making my documentary I had to re-address my questions to avoid being sexist in any form possible, doing this stopped me from asking other things e.g. Do women belong in the kitchen, Are women smarter than men, Do you think women can have an important say in world politics. 

  

Filmmakers observed these principles with widely shared limitations. In relation to subjects, they often did not feel obliged to protect subjects who they believed had themselves done harm or who had independent access to media, such as celebrities or corporate executives with their own public relations arms. In relation to viewers, they often justified the manipulation of individual facts, sequences, and meanings of images, if it meant telling a story more effectively and helped viewers grasp the main, and overall truthful, themes of a story.

Research- Kurt and Courtney (1998)

Kurt & Courtney is a documentary film by Nick Broomfield investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain, and allegations of Courtney Love's involvement in it. The film concludes that there is not enough evidence to prove that Cobain was murdered with Courtney's approval.

The documentary begins as an investigation of the circumstances surrounding Cobain's death and the theories which sprung up afterwards. Cobain was legally declared to have committed suicide but has been alleged by some who worked on the case, to have been murdered, in some allegations at Courtney Love's instigation.

As Broomfield investigates the claims surrounding Cobain's death, his emphasis moves from the murder theories and onto an investigation of Love herself, including an accusation that she supports the suppression of free speech, and her fame after Cobain's death.

Research-Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents

Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents is a documentary/reality television series first aired in the United Kingdom in early 2011 on BBC Three. The concept of the programme is that teenagers go on their first girls'/lads' holiday abroad under the belief that they are getting away from their parents - however their parents are also sent to the holiday destination and secretly watch footage of their children on video screens, and also often spy in their hotel rooms and at nightclub locations. The parents then reveal themselves on the last night of the holiday, to the dismay of the children, and tell them what they've seen and what they've learnt.
Although its only about teenagers going out and making fools of themselves, the 2012 series regularly hit high viewing figures for a digital television programme bring in 1.15 million viewers, beating The Only Way Is Essex.

Research-Biggie & tupac (2002)

Biggie & Tupac is a feature-length documentary film about two icon in the rap industry. Tupac Amaru Shakur known by his stage names 2Pac, Pac, and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur was shot four times in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 1996. He was taken to the University Medical Centre, where he died six days later  Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007. 


Biggie best known as The Notorious B.I.G., was an American rapper. He was also known as Biggie Smalls , Big Poppa, and The Black Frank White. On March 9, 1997  four bullets hit Wallace in the chest during a drive by shooting. Wallace's entourage rushed him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, but he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m.


This documentary was released in 2002, after many years of investigations into this touchy case no one has yet to be charged for the murders of these at the time young men. This doc looks into how this war began with the two former friends and the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry.

Preparation-Research into documentaries

Because I was working by myself i sat down and discussed which genre would be the most easiest and effective to film with my Media Studies teachers. We ultimately came to the decision of the documentary genre and started looking at trailers and film makers on YouTube. As I already knew about Sir David Attenborough i also wanted one more person to research and my teacher suggested to me a man called Nick broomfield and from there I began to piece different areas of film- making/documentaries.

Background Into Research

Over the summer holidays I spent around 3-4 hours a day watching different documentaries to try and understand the forms, norms and different types of documentaries. The three main documentaries I watched were: Planet Earth, Nature's Great Events and Life. These are all nature documentaries but gave me an idea of how to carry out filming and things to include, over the next 3 months I began to watch more real to life docs which included Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents (which is based around young men and women 18-21 going out and having a fun time), Kurt and Courtney (1998) and Biggie & Tupac (2002).

First Draft - Evaluation

I felt that I knew what I wanted to do with my documentary, so putting my first draft together gave me a better plan to try and add new things to make it better and more fluent and more documentary..

First draft

This is what I had put together at first as a draft to note if i need to make any changes...

Research

The reason I chose to do a documentary was because I spend a fair amount of time watching them and i felt that i would understand the norms of making one and because I was working by myself I was able to input all my ideas and pick, twist and change what ever I wanted and at any time.
I looked into two main in the documentary world...Nick Broomfield and Sir David Frederick Attenborough.

Nick Broomfield: He is an English documentary film-maker. He is most known for making a documentary film about slain rap icons The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, an investigation of the deaths of the two icons, which some people claim were orchestrated by Suge Knight, head of Death Row Records.



















Sir David Frederick Attenborough:  He is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the nine Life series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of all life on the planet.

Location

I wanted to film in place in where I knew that there would have been a small amount of people walking up and down and wouldn't disturb us, these places were Chelsea riverside walk, City London university campus and at Westminster City Boys School. Not only because of the limited amount of people but I wanted to keep the location in a clean/neutral space and make it relevant to where young people would go and hang out with friends.

Props (mise en scene)

The look we went for was a Hip but modern presentable look for both the presenter and the people being interviewed. The look I wanted Clarissa to have was a well off attractive girl, simple but eye catching. Also not to make them look too "loud" but also letting people know that its aimed for 16-19. Through out my doc most of the young people I interviewed has the look you would feel appropriate for people of that age to look like and because of this many people compared my doc to something BBC Three would make.

Casting

For the casting it was pretty straight forward into who I was going to ask to be involved, knowing that my documentary was going to be about girls who are smart approaching these young woman was second to none. I spoke to Sara and Shukri face to face and they agreed to be interviewed, but I also wanted a girl who has been through it already and so I spoke to my ex girlfriend who is now in university and went to Grey Coat Hospital which is an all girls school and has been there since 2006 and also went to the school sixth form but came to WCS on consortium. All of these young woman have been to a mixed and or all girls school and I believe that they are all strong minded and know what they want and so it made sense in picking them over other girls still in WCS and in other places.

Below is where you can see that I asked Clarissa and Irma to to in my documentary.

Filming Times

Well because the main girl in the documentary is in university her timetable was inconsistent, so finding times to film with her was a lot of trouble. Also the other people in my documentary had different lessons and others were away and or at work so therefore I would have to stay behind after school hours and turn up before school to film the parts with just me talking.

Most of my filming times would have been during my media lesions and free periods which were:

Monday: Period 3-4 and after school
Tuesday: Period 3-4 and after school
Free Wednesday from 10:55am onwards
Thursday: period 1-2/12:55pm onwards

Making a timetable was not need as it is a documentary and I didn't want things to have been set up (fake) as that would have lead to a "mockumentary" which is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format.

Solutions with iMovie-Title box

Because I've used iMovie for two years now I did find ways around my problems...

Title box
It may have only been my PC but every time I went to scroll down to get different titles it would close, so to avoid this I only used the ones at the top plus they were the ones I need do it didn't make that big of a problem, apart from when it closed down.

Problems with iMovie

Many people in WCS may have had problems whiles using iMovie (if they use it) e.g. film lags, iMovie sometimes closes down when trying to edit and other times it would freeze and take about an hour to come back.

Problems with Mac

Over the past few months there have been a few problems whiles using mac, because other student come into the media suite and switch between Mac and windows the PC will burn out and crash, thus leading to the PC tec having to wipe  the PC whole.
Because of this everything I had edited had been taken of my main PC, but lucky I had my footage left on the camera i was using, so in my spear time and during my media lessons i would sit down and upload everything then re-edit. The picture below is what I first found out that everything on my desktop.

Rough Draft of Script

As its  a documentary there was no script but my questions were...
How has coming to a boys school changed you.
How has it made you thing about boys.
Have you changed in the way you think about them, and the way they ac.