1. AS Media Studies Evalua/on
Anna Benne3

2. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conven/ons of real media products?
Our documentary, en/tled iDownload, focused on the various issues surrounding illegal downloading in today’s society and
the effects it has on the music industry. We decided that the target audience for our documentary would be 16‐24 year
olds who have an interest in music, and the ma3er of illegal downloading may be a topic that concerns them. ALer
some research, we decided that the best channel to air our documentary would be Channel 4, since the
documentaries have a similar target audience. There are many Channel 4 documentaries that deal with
issues in the media regarding technology and music, since these are topics that interest the target
audience. Examples of these documentaries shown on Channel 4 can be found on
h3p://www.channel4.com/programmes/tags/documentaries and include the following /tles;
Steve Jobs: iChanged the World Love, Virtually How Hip Hop Changed the World
Being on the same channel with the same target audience, our documentary is conven/onal in the sense that it follows the
same theme – regarding both music and technology in the subject ma3er of illegal downloading. We have even followed
Apple’s conven/on of using ‘i’ in front of its products, since the iPod is by far the most common mp3 player and is used by
many to play illegally downloaded music on.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

3. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conven/ons of real media products?
For inspira/on, we found documentaries about the same subject. A student Downloaded: A Short Documentary on Media Piracy
documentary en/tled ‘Downloaded: A Short Documentary on Media Piracy’ and On YouTube
Panorama’s ‘Are the Net Police Coming for You?’ which aired on BBC 1. (Both of
these can be watched via the play bu3ons on the previews on this page.)
Because ‘Downloaded’ was a student documentary, it would gave us a few ideas
for out own student documentary. Since Panorama is a series of popular
documentaries that follow many of the codes and conven/ons of typical
documentaries and was aimed at an audience of young adults, we used it in
order to get an idea of what a real documentary should look like.
Panorama: Are the Net Police Coming for You?
On WatchDocumentary.com
The /tle sequence of Panorama’s documentary was very drama/c, with a flurry of
cutaways and an effec/ve voiceover which was amplified by a fast paced music
track. These conven/ons are very common across TV documentaries, and since we
wanted to follow these conven/ons, we decided to give our documentary that
similar effec/ve edge by using as much fast shots of background footage as possible
in the opening 30 seconds, while the narrator on the voiceover gave informa/on
about the documentary. We decided to use a fast, catchy, electronic track as our
background music in order to get the a3en/on of the audience and also to keep the
pace of the documentary.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

4. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conven/ons of real media products?
Black Background
Black Background
White Text
White Text
When displaying the /tle of the documentary, it needs to be effec/ve and memorable. Many documentaries choose to
display their /tles by simply typing them. We decided that this was a be3er op/on that wri/ng it, because the documentary
is about technology and we wanted to keep to that sleek, modern theme. We took inspira/on from Apple’s simplis/c design
by just using white text on black (which is very striking, and used in Panorama), as we decided this looked much more
professional than using any colours or shapes.
Medium Close‐Up of subject
Working environment created with mise‐
en‐scene. Computers, desks etc
ArKcle about illegal downloading on
screen – relates to topic of documentary
Name and Profession
The professional interviews are one of the most crucial parts of a documentary. They oLen use a fixed camera medium‐close‐
up of the subject who is sat in an appropriate environment for their field of work. We used a tripod to stand the camera at a
sufficient distance to get a medium‐close‐up shot and thought carefully about the mise‐en‐scene in the frame. Typically, a
working, office‐type environment is used, with computers and desks in the background. This was an appropriate set up for
three of our four interviews, so we did this.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

5. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conven/ons of real media products?
In order to introduce the interviewee, their name and profession is labelled on‐screen for a short period of /me when they first
appear. We used white font since it kept consistent with the /tle, and most importantly showed up on the posi/on on‐screen. It is
very important that the audience is able to read the text, as it is important informa/on. Before the interview, it is a common
conven/on in TV documentaries to give an introductory shot. An extreme close‐up of a musician playing a guitar was used to
introduce an interview in Panorama
which was very similar to
Extreme close‐up
one we used
shot of guitar to introduce the guitarist from the
student band we interviewed.
Introductory shots are
relevant to the interviewee’s profession, so a guitarist
playing a guitar seemed appropriate.
In all of the TV documentaries that we watched for research, a large amount of background footage was used, breaking up
footage and illustra/ng what people were saying, keeping the a3en/on of the audience. Following this conven/on, we filmed
a lot of our own background footage on anything to do with music downloading. We filmed things such as CDs, music
magazines, mp3 players and websites/soLware for downloading music. We got some shots that were similar to those in other
documentaries.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

6. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conven/ons of real media products?
One of the ways that our documentary developed conven/ons of real documentaries was in the way that it was presented.
Documentaries oLen have an on‐screen presenter, presen/ng the documentary and interviewing people. However, we
decided that it would be much more effec/ve to create our documentary around elements of the expository mode, with a
hidden narrator. This makes it more personal, since the viewer is addressed
directly. Instead of a person asking ques/ons on‐screen for our vox‐pops,
Extreme Close‐ we decided it would look much be3er if we typed the ques/ons out on an
Up of iPod iPod Touch, a popular mp3 player that many of the illegal downloaders
use to listen to their music on. We felt that this was appropriate since it fits in
Text is clear
and readable with the topic and the audience may be able to relate to it. We filmed in
darkness so that the contrast between the black text on the white backlight
would be both readable and drama/c.
As a cutaway, we decided to be crea/ve and
include something that we hadn’t seen in any
documentaries that we had studied. We
created a basic stop‐mo/on anima/on of CDs
piling up in a spiral, by taking photos of each
frame, then playing them in quick succession.
We believe that this would grab the a3en/on
of the audience.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

7. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conven/ons of real media products?
Doctor Who S6 Radio Trailer
On YouTube As our documentary was quite conven/onal, we wanted to keep
consistent and make our radio trailer conven/onal as well. First of all,
we listened to some student radio trailers to see what worked well and
what wasn’t as effec/ve. We listened out for things like content
(narra/on/quotes), length, music and pace. We searched on YouTube
and found a professional radio trailer by the BBC promo/ng the new
series of Doctor Who. Even though we were making a documentary,
not a sci‐fi drama, and it was to be aired on channel 4, we s/ll found
this an effec/ve example of a promo/onal radio trailer.
We liked how the radio trailer started off with drama/c music, which built up tension, and then used quotes
from the program, so we did this in our own radio trailer. The purpose of the radio trailer is to adver/se the
documentary, grabbing the a3en/on of the target audience, leeng them know what it’s about and most
importantly informing them of the /me and date that the documentary will be aired. We made sure that we
had all of these conven/ons.
Like the Doctor Who radio trailer, the narrator was professional and spoke clearly. The music in the background
could be heard but the sound levels were adjusted so that it did not distract from the script. We tried our
hardest to do all of this in our own.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

8. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conven/ons of real media products?
Radio Times ArKcle for Casualty 1907
Quotes
Main image
Title
Sub‐heading
Images from
IntroducKon documentary
Date, Time
& Channel Page
number
Magazine ar/cles typically feature some common conven/ons, which are labelled above. We researched various different
magazine ar/cles to make sure that we included all the essen/al codes and conven/ons. The ar/cle to the leL is an ar/cle
published in Radio Times, adver/sing the series Casualty 1907. This is useful since we decided to publish our own magazine
ar/cle in the same magazine. Our layout is very conven/onal, using columns broken up by sec/ons for quotes (which we gave a
different colour to stand out and break up the page) and images from the documentary itself. However, the majority of the
ar/cles that we looked at seemed to follow a black‐on‐white theme whereas we went for the opposite. We felt that white‐on‐
black looked striking and followed the drama/c theme we were going for. We used accents of blue taken from the image to give
some colour. We made sure that all of the informa/on was available and easily accessible – the date, /me and channel are
separated by lines to stand out, and the /tle is bold and considerably larger than the rest of the text.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

9. How effec/ve is the combina/on of your main product and ancillary texts?
We chose to air our
documentary on Channel 4
in order to reach our target
audience of 16‐24 year olds,
since Channel 4 hosts a
range of similar
documentaries that appeal
to the same target
audience. This is why we
felt it appropriate to choose
this channel.
Unlike the BBC, Channel 4 do not have
their own radio sta/on, so we could not
keep consistent in this decision.
Alterna/vely, we found that Capital FM,
one of Britain’s largest radio sta/ons,
appealed to our target audience. With a
We promoted our documentary in a magazine large audience of listeners, we were sure
ar/cle for Radio Times. This is because Radio Times to promote and adver/se our
is very well known in Britain for publishing ar/cles documentary well.
about documentaries, and could encourage a wide
audience to watch it.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

10. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We produced some ques/onnaires for our documentary, radio trailer and magazine ar/cle to get an idea of
what the audience wanted from them. We asked ques/ons about the kind of things that we should include
in the media products in order to appeal to the target audience, for example what kinds of topics should be
used in the documentary, what kind of music should be used in the radio trailer and what kind of layout and
colours should be used for the magazine ar/cle. Below are the Ques/onnaires we handed out.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

11. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We created more ques/onnaires, this /me to give
people aLer they had seen our media products in
order to gain their feedback. We showed 18 people
our documentary, radio trailer and magazine ar/cle,
then gave them the ques/onnaires to fill in. Below is
the ques/onnaire we printed;
First of all we asked some general ques/ons about
age and gender to get an idea of the audience, who
we found all fi3ed our target audience. We then
asked about their thoughts on the documentary,
radio trailer and magazine ar/cle ‐ what the strongest
parts were and the parts that needed improvement.
We also asked more specific ques/ons, for example
about the effec/veness of the sound levels.
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

12. How did you use media technologies in the construc/on and research
planning, and evalua/on stages?
M
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on

13. How did you use media technologies in the construc/on and research
planning, and evalua/on stages?
A2 Media Studies Evalua/on