Completed Evaluation

Media Evaluation Questions

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Above my final evaluation, showing the completed stages to answering the questions provided. In order to do this, I signed up to 'www.slideshare.net', which I then published my PowerPoint onto in order to show the finished version of my evaluation. I then enbedded this into Blogger in order to show the completed version in full. This was an effective way to show the progression and completion of the finished documentary.

Completed Documentary

Above is the our completed documentary, something that was important to include within the completion of blogging. From the documentary shown, it is clear that the extensive use of planning and preparation has resulted in an overall successful documentary.

Evaluation Questions Presentation

Now that I have completed the remaining slides to my evaluation, I have decided to show the finished PowerPoint to the other members of my group. I was able to show this on PowerPoint's slide show, reading out each slide as my other group members watched. From presenting the PowerPoint, I was able to recieve some feedback and suggestive areas that could be improved. For example, one member of the group, Hester, said that the overall presentation was effective and the conclusion stood out, however, one of the slides potentially contained too much text and could be split in to two slides to make it more visual. This is something that I will take into consideration and contemplate changing. Overall, the evaluation questions appeared to be relevant to the specification and I was able to get sustained feedback from the group.

Completion of Supporting Pieces

Now that I have a firm understanding of what an interview layout requires, I've been able to produce my own interview, conforming to the expectations of magazine layouts. I have chosen to use a block colour for the background, therefore audience attention can be focused on the information instead of a complicated background. This also helps to reflect the genre of the article, keepin the colour scheme soft and easy on the eye. I chose to use white 'Baskerville Old Face' font, in order to create variation and so the text stands out against the contrasting background. I found the interview simplistic and straightforward to write, as I was able to incorporate information that I had learned throughout the course, for example, just how dangerous driving can be. The picture used within the interview I felt created impact, being easy on the eye but also creating effect, something that I wanted to create throughout the article. The title, as mentioned previously was designed on dafont.com, again keeping in with the simplistic tone of the article, something that I felt was pivotal to show throughout due to the sensitive and personal subject of teenage driving.

Group Supporting Piece

We have decided as our second supporting piece to create a radio advert, in order to relate closely to our documentary. Whilst I created the narrative, we decied that Leanne would do the voice overs, in order to create different roles within the group. This is something we found fairly simple to complete, only needing a couple of run-throughs before we were able to complete our final advert. We experimented with different sounds that we could potentially incorporate into the advert, however, finally decided on finishing the advert with a 'police siren' sound, relating closely to the advert. In order to create the advert, we used a software called 'GarageBand' on the Mac computers, something that we haven't used before, however, found simple and relatively easy to use. This was a successful yet different group task, something that we were able to complete with structured research.

Continuing Supporting Piece 1

I have created one page of my double-paged spread for a magazine so far and am currently completing the other side, which is where the interview will be placed. I have chosen to create an interview who lost a friend in a car accident, similar to the one shown within our documentary, as well as incorporating the idea that the person being interviewed had watched our documentary. I have created, as part of one of the questions, her reaction to this and made it relevant to the documentary as well as the topic being discussed, linking into elements of the documentary. In order to create an effective looking and detailed interview, I will need to continue to condense the information created so far and include visual effects, such as images and potentially a relevant background in order to relate closely to my target audience. This is something I will aim to do once I have finished coming up with appropriate context.

Evaluation Questions

Now that the filming process has been completed, during the Easter break, I have begun creating my PowerPoint Presentation, displaying the evaluation questions and showing some of the work we produced as a group through the use of screenshots and images. I researched different wallpapers at google.co.uk in order to create an orginial PowerPoint, as well as experimenting with colours and fonts. I decided to keep the PowerPoint fairly simple in order not to attract attention away from the information. I have used the questions given by the exam board as a guideline in order to help explain such features as how our documentary appears to be conventional and the results from audience feedback. This is something I have been working on over Easter, however, will need to include further visual effects and images used within our documentary on the Mac computers, something that I will complete when we return. This screenshot is shows the development stages towards completing the evaluation process.

Audience Feedback- Filming

After several lessons of editing, we have finally completed our documentary. In order to gain critical perspectives and constructive comments, we showed our documentary to a selected group of students, all of who fell into our target audience, allowing them to watch the documentary and create their own opinions on what they thought was effective and areas that they thought could be improved. We then recorded this and were able to watch it back as a group in order to see the areas that worked best and where we could develop our documentary further. From the comments given, it was clear that our documentary created impact and drew people in to the harmful effects that driving can have, due to the fact that it was something they could relate to as they themselves were beginning driving too. Some of the transitions however, were said to be short and needed lengthening as well as becoming more smoother from one shot to the next, which is something that we took into consideration and ultimately changed in order to relate entirely to our target audience.

Examples of Editing- Statistics

Above is an example of some of the editing that our group have done. This particular clip shows statistical information, representing how we took a shot of the motorway from above and them incorporated statistics over the top of this within iMovie, in order to create effect an impact. From this clip, we all realised that the use of a voice-over would add further effect to the statistics, which we recorded at a later date and eventually added to our final documentary. By group discussion and experimenting with shots such as the one above, we were able to make successful changes in order to enhance our documentary.

Fonts

I have discovered through extensive research that the title of an interview is one of the key features of an article, as it is one of the areas audiences are most attracted to. The actual title as well as the title font is pivotal, therefore I used http://www.dafont.com/ to create the font shown within the picture. I felt this font and title was relevant and help to reflect the genre of the article.

Supporting Piece 1 Part 2- Research

Now that I have completed my first supporting piece, I have continued researching the layout of interviews, particularly within diverse magazines such as 'Heat', so I can get a distinct interpretation of what it features magazines require from an interview. I have also been looking through old magazines for inspirations on layouts and colours, something that I will take into consideration when creating my own interview. I will now begin finding the most appropriate 'Microsoft Publisher' format, in order to give me a starting outline for the beginnings of the structured interview. I will have to keep in mind that the use of relevant images helps attract audiences to the article, therefore aim to incorporate this within the interview.

Supporting Piece 1- Development

Whilst other members of the group continued editing, I have continued to develop my supporting piece further, by collecting information on well-known documentaries and relevant images to put into my review. I have used features such as star-ratings in order to conform to the conventions of the layout of a review. I now have to wait until our documentary is completed so I can add images into my first supporting piece and be on my way into completing my first supporting piece. Now I will begin to look for improvements that can be made to my supporting piece, by researching further reviews in detail and looking to see what's already successful within the current market. I will then begin to start thinking about researching my second supporting piece: a strucutred interview, again by researching what's already popular with audiences.

Voice Overs

Now that the majority of editing has been completed, we decided to begin to discuss which member of the group will be doing the voice overs. All members of the group did a test for this and concluded that I would be best to take the responsibility of this. The voice overs were simple and quick to complete, using the built-in camera within the Mac computer, enabling us to efficiently create several voice overs that'll be featured throughout. We now have to edit these appropriately into our documentary, along with viewing the documentary several times in order to make changes and continue to see which elements work well, in order to result in a detailed and relevant documentary.

Week Without Filming

The week before last, we spent the week focusing specifically on working on editing, concentrating on the way in which each clip successfully transitioned into the next. We did this by discussing within our group elements of the documentary that worked, e.g. the interviews, however we discovered some features of the documentary lacked relevance and therefore resulted in us coming to the conclusion certain parts could remain out of the sequence, for example, an image we shot of a racing car. Last week, our attention turned onto the exam part of the course, meaning that editing and progressive work on our documentary wasn't as successful. However, this week, we have commenced our editing work, finishing off last bits of sequencing the documentary and deciding on the need to create voice-overs which will be read over the statistics.

Fifth Interview

Our fifth interview was something that we felt needed to be added to our documentary in order to relate further to teenage driving. I constructed four basic but in-depth questions to ask, so that the interview would be developed yet succint. Hester filmed whilst I asked the interviewee the questions. (This is shown within the top video). This was constructed by using a hand-held camera, once more creating a diverse shot to the ones in which we have displayed throughout. The interview was of great success, as the interviewee gave detailed answers and therefore provided the group with one of the best interviews that we have constructed.
It has been discussed however, to remove my voice of asking the questions within the interview due to the fact that the person gave insightful answers and therefore we felt that it would be more effective to just have the interviewee speaking, similar to our other interviews. We have no completed most of the shots needed within our documentary, allowing us to focus on completing the editing process.

Editing Footage Contin...

Throughout the last few lessons, editing has taken priority within lesson time, with the group as a whole discussing the fluidity of the documentary and which shot would follow on from the next. This was time consuming as we all had different imputs into what we thought would work, therefore we had to make changes, such as cutting interviews in order for them to remain concise and relative to our chosen subject. We also continued bleeding the shots of statistics in order to reflect the taboo subject that we aim to portray throughout. We have now come to the stage of seeing the documentary coming together and have decided another interview is needed in order to show diversity within people's opinions of teenage driving, something that we were able to discover as the editing process continued.

Editing Footage

We have realised that in order to progress further with our filming, that we need to begin editing footage together so we can identify what other filming needs to be done and what areas we ultimately need to work on. Myself, Leanne and Josh discussed in great detail the order in which we wanted our documentary to flow and were therefore able to begin editing parts of the documentary together. We agreed to begin our documentary with archive footage, something we felt would create impact within the opening stages of the film. We were then able to make a list of the order of narration as well as writing down and recording other areas that we needed to focus on more, for instance we came to the conclusion that we needed more archive footage, which was possible to identify as the editing process began to develop. This is something we need to expand and develop further.
We also started to research different types of music, such as 'Booming Reverse' on Itunes, to try and understand what would reflect the topic of our documentary, as well as being able to appeal directly to audiences.

Fourth Interview

For our fourth interview, our group discussed creating a different type of interview, almost like a visual diary about an experience of a teenage accident. We felt that this would provide a different element to our documentary, as well as appealing to the emotive elements of audiences. We completed this by using the in-built camera within the Mac computer, something that we have not used when filming before. This was a new experience for the whole group, however provided variation to show diversity within our filming. Now that we have completed three interviews, we will begin focusing on editing together all of the work we have done so far, in order to see what else we need to film, resulting in our 5 minute documentary.

Third Interview

We decided to construct another interview, in order to show a different perspective of teenage driving. We used the questions that I composed in order to provide guidelines for the person being interviewed, which was helpful not only for her but also us filming as we were able to identify that by doing this type of interview, the conversation was able to flow and therefore resulted in an effective interview. The interview was successful as we were able to conform to the typical conventions of documentary making, by ensuring the person being interviewed was placed to the right of the screen. This is something we have aimed to do throughout or interviews, creating diversification and impact within the shots. We were able to work well to produce a succint yet powerful interview, something we aim to convey within our third interview, which we are currently planning for.

Creating Questions For An Interview

Whilst other members of the group have continued editing, I have decided to create a set of questions for one of our interviews. This interview will be with a driving instructor, showing him discussing the harsh realities that passing the driving test can bring. Although there will be no interviewer actually asking these questions, they will help to provide a guideline for the person being interviewed so they are aware of the type information that we ultimately want to find out. These questions also allow me to think more creatively about the information that we need to include within our documentary, as well as providing another in depth and relevant source to show the impacts of teenage driving. These questions may be adapted and developed further, however provide a starting point and guidence for the driving instructor. This is something that we hope to film within the next lesson.

Supporting Piece 1- Review

Now that I have conducted a sufficient amount of research for my supporting pieces, I have begun figuring out a layout for my review. Using the information collected from the research, I have come up with an idea to display the top 5 documentaries of the year, ours featuring as number one. I have done this by editing a film-strip template and have decided that i will copy pictures from each documentary within the film strips to show the order of the top 5 documentaries. I will then write the reviews next to each image, as well as giving each documentary a star rating. This is a typical convention used within current layouts of reviews and something that I aim to incorporate into my own review. I have also experimented with different types of fonts and styles, by the use of such sites as http://www.dafont.com/ in order to reflect the light-hearted element of the review. By doing in depth research and creating my own review, I have become more understanding of the requirements needed within the creation of reviews and have also become more familiar with the Publisher format, using different templates and backgrounds for example, as this is the programme I am using to create the review. This is an example of the beginnings of my development in creating my review, however, there is evident improvement to be made as I will experience as I begin to develop my initial ideas.

Advert Research Continued

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8QxZJZfU5Q In researching different types of adverts, I came across this advert on Youtube, which I thought had real relevance to our chosen topic. This link had a significant impact on me personally, showing diverse, devastating effects that car accidents can have on people of all ages. The use of emotive, slow music made this clip even more shocking, as well as the intensity of the situations shown immediately drawing audiences to the advert. This is something that would be extremley relevant within our own advert and therefore has allowed me to consider further the importance of the emotive consequences of driving, as well as the hard-hitting statistics. I believe this type of advert portrays elements of shock and disbelief for all ages, resulting in this clip being one of extreme importance to help us create an advert that is just as meaningful and succint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWgJ-0yYdVk This was another clip I discovered. Although the clip doesn't consist of any statistics or alot of images, the incorporation of music and the narration that is shown on screen creates dramatic effect and has a huge impact. This is another way in which we could compose our advert, by the use of shocking images and basic, yet effective language shown on screen in order to show the harsh realities of teenage driving. This is also something that I will continue to research further and make my group aware of when we come to actually creating our own advert.

Further Research for Supporting Pieces

As one of my supporting pieces, we have decided as a group to create a TV advert. In preparation for this, I have begun researching exisiting TV adverts and campaigns, in order to see what's already being portrayed within the media today. By looking at other campaigns in depth, it has allowed me to become aware of the type of features required within an advert and the importance of creating severe impact on audiences, in order for the advert to become effective. This will then allow us to create a similiar advert, emphasising the terrible impactof teenage driving fatalities.


Such campaigns as the ones featured within have
allowed me to become familiar with the idea of slogans.
I feel that these are an important part of a campaign and advert, as it allows audiences to remember key parts of the advert if the slogan is of high impact. This is something that we will need to consider when creating our own advert, in order to ensure the advert is of a high quality and consists of typical conventions of already marketed adverts.

Filming Traffic

We have decided to create a shot overlooking the A3 from a bridge, filming traffic at a high speed in order to show just how dangerous high levels of speed can be. Although they may not be of teenagers, it represents the velocity that drivers to go to without realising the impacts of the speed they are actually going, therefore will represent to audiences the need to be aware at all times of how fast they are going. We will then incorporate statistics over the top of this shot, in order to show the devastating effects of driving and ultimately create a shot of impact to teenagers who, for example, have just passed their test. This type of shot will allow us to include a type of birds-eye shot, creating variation and difference of angles used.

Now that we have completed the shots overlooking the A3, we have discussed adding effects and speeding up the clips in order to create further impact. We took shots from different angles, in order to see which was most effective. We also created a close-up of a car driving past, looking down from the bridge which we all felt would create variation and tension within the shot.

Consideration of AS Compared With A2 Practical Work

It is important to mention that we have begun to differentiate the differences and similarities of technical equipment and aspects that we used within both areas of our practical work, aiming to progess further from the AS course and develop techniques and understanding. It is clear to see that in order to improve further from the use of radio microphones for interviews frrom the AS course, we need to experience and deal with further in-depth equipment, for instance, the use of tripods and adapting shots in order to reflect the subject of our documentary. This type of research makes way for me to develop and push my abilities further, resulting in a more sophisticated documentary than that from the AS course.

Storyboard Catch-Up

Although we haven't finished the storyboard as of yet, these pictures begin to show the early stages of our visual learning board, which by using imovie HD, we have included labels and camera shots ontop of the images to show audiences what we are aiming to convey. By completing this type of storyboard, we aim to appeal to audiences that our documentary will ultimately be aimed at, teenagers, therefore displaying elements that will be incorporated into our final documentary. Now that we have begun the filming process, along with filming, we can begin to develop our storyboard further, expanding on our images.

Such shots as the rev counter, aim to display the speed of driving that teenagers often disregard. This type of image is something that many teenagers can relate to, similarly to adults, particularly men, when they were youngsters and the idea that 'the need for speed' was something they felt and ignored the consequences of. Although this shot appears to be quite basic, the development of the image, once we begin filming will establish and relate to audiences the extremeties of teenage driving.

Filming Interviews

Above is evidence of interviews that we have begun in order to establish the conventions needed in order to incorporate into our documentary. Effects and music have also been added to create an impression of what can be done in order to manipulate the fiming and therefore reflect the progression stages to our final film. By Josh filming whilst myself and Leanne acted allowed us to discuss aspects of the filming that worked, for example, we all identified that the set up of the interview was adequate, however, we also came to the conclusion that the lighting needs to be dimmed in order to reflect the mood of our documentary. This filming process has been particularly useful in understanding how the structure of the interview is important for conveying coventions of documentary making, as well as developing skills as to what's required to create something that audiences can empathise with.

Continuation of Individual Research- Interviews

Oncemore, I have been looking at current layouts of magazine interviews, in order to compare text styles and fonts so that I can eventually incorporate this into my own interviews.
Interviews clearly provide an insight into the lives of a particular person or potentially a given subject, allowing audiences to be able to relate to the type of content featured within. Composing an interview relevant for a magazine requires precision when laying out the format, which can be seen in such magazines as shown here. This type of layout is quite basic, with various pictures making up most of the page layout. The interviewer is clearly distinguishable, as the writing is always in bold, something that is made evident throughout most editions of the magazine. This type of layout potentially wouldn't be relevant to our own documentary, however, is useful to provide inspiration and give possible options. I will have to take into account the colours and fonts in order to reflect the type of documentary that we are making. This is something I will focus on once I have researched in detail the differences and similarities between layouts of interviews and reviews.

Individual Research- Reviews and Interviews

Besides from the progression of film making, I have begun to research into looking closely at different types of reviews and interviews that are already featured within magazines in order to begin to create the other part of the coursework (change). I have managed to view magazines such as 'Heat' and 'Closer', in order to get a better understanding of how to present and lay out my own interview and review, as well as becoming familiar with such programmes as 'Publisher' once more, similarly from the GCSE course. I have found it challenging to learn to work individually again, however, am able to display my own abilities in the creation of my planning and ultimately the finished product. I will use the knowledge learnt from the GCSE course of creating a magazine in order to help me progress further with this element of the course. I will learn the differences in producing a review to that of a magazine article, something which I will find by the incorporation of extensive research and planning.

Film Progression

Spending the majority of time doing indepth research and developing our intial ideas, it is now essential that the filming begins. One of our group members has managed contact Jon Snow, the Channel 4 news reporter who has agreed to let us interview him on his thoughts and opinions on teenage driving. We have discussed this and felt that it would be a good way to incorporate elements of the media into our documentary and their effect that they have on the way in which driving is viewed. For instance, programmes such as Top Gear have made speeding become some what acceptable, particularly for boys, therefore it would be interesting to hear the views of someone who appears to be closely linked to the media and the representation that such role models as Richard Hammond may have on viewers. This is still an idea that needs to be confirmed, however, is another and important development in making our documentary diverse and something current within today's society.