1. Evaluation
of Final Documentary
and Ancillary Tasks
Ami Rutter

2. In what ways do your media
products use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?

3. • Our brief was to produce an extract from a new documentary TV
programme (lasting approximately 5 minutes), a 30 second radio trailer
and a double page spread from a listings magazine. Our documentary had
to be a controversial topic so ours was about young people and
unemployment and we called it ‘The Jobless Generation’.
• In order for us to do this effectively, we had to research the codes and
conventions of real media products and adhere to them as best we could
to add a sense of professionalism. During research and planning we
watched a documentary called ‘Are the net police coming for you?’
• http://moodle.solihullsfc.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=40079

4. Ident
• Before the documentary even began there was an ident introducing the
programme and revealing the channel and time etc. We included an ident,
taken from Channel 4, to add authenticity to our documentary. We choose
Channel 4 because we felt this would be the most appropriate for our
target audience, which is mainly young people (16-24) looking for work,
but parents, teachers and employers may also be interested.

5. Opening Montage
• Having analysed the openings of several
documentaries we noticed that they often
used a montage, with images or clips
flashing up for a few seconds, establishing
the topic. We liked this convention and
thought that it would be easy to re-create
using relevant images from our own topic
(The Jobless Generation). It was important
for us to get the opening montage right as it
gives the first impression to the
documentary. We used establishing shots of
Solihull, as well as recruitment posters, both
of which can be seen below.

6. Title
• The title of our documentary ‘The Jobless Generation’ is not the first
frame to appear, instead it comes after the opening montage, and unfolds
across the screen. Although we followed a convention by not having the
title right at the beginning, in most of the documentaries which we
watched the title appears over the footage, whereas in ours the title is on
a white background. This is perhaps a weakness for us, nevertheless it is
clear and easy to read. To improve we could have had the title across a
shot in front of the job centre.
Relevant background
Plain background
Title - unfolding

7. Sound/Voiceover
• We recorded a voiceover (another convention of documentaries) which
was informative. It explained what was going on in the footage, making it
easier for the audience to follow, and again adding to the realism.
• The voiceover corresponded with the captions in our documentary, so
when someone was introduced the voiceover said who they were, as well
as a caption.
• The non-diegetic soundtrack which we choose was upbeat and fast paced
to appeal to our target audience. We adjusted the sound levels, so that
when people from our footage were talking the music wasn’t as loud. Our
overall sound quality was quite poor, something which was highlighted in
our audience feedback, so this was an obvious improvement which we
would need to address if we were making our documentary again.

8. Interviews
We interviewed people who were relevant
to our topic, and professionals in the field,
on the left is Emma Hurst from the College
Careers Advice Service. By using
experienced people, as opposed to people
off the street it gave our documentary
more credibility. We also did voxpop style
interviews with students which our target
audience could relate to.
Before filming the interviews we
prepared a script, featuring
questions which we would ask. We
also had to consider the mise en
scene, so Emma’s interview was in
her office, on her computer screen
in the background is a job seeking
website. Interviews with students
were around college, on plain
backgrounds.

9. Camera Angles and Shots
• The image on the right hand
side is a screen shot taken
from an episode of the BBC
programme, Panorama. We
thought that this shot was
effective to insert into our
montage, and was relevant to
our topic because of people
searching for jobs on the
internet. We then tried to re-
create the shot.

10. Narrative Structure
• Conventional documentaries are balanced and clear, so we had to
consider the narrative structure. We decided to use a case study style,
where we focused on one student (Jack) on his quest to find a job. This
was effective because it appealed to the target audience as they could
sympathise with Jack. When interviewing Jack we used medium close up
shots, as we did with our other interviews, and is a conventional aspect of
documentaries, but we also filmed establishing shots of Jack, which show
him walking in and out of shops looking for a job.

11. Ancillary Tasks: Listings Page
• We analysed some listings pages in order to familiarise ourselves with the
conventions used, so that we could use the same conventions in our listings
page.

12. Ancillary Tasks: Listings Page
Numbers 1-6 link the professional listings page with our listings page, in other
words conventions which we have followed. Numbers 7 and 8 are
conventions which we have taken from other listings pages, or effects we
have used because we thought they added to the authenticity, or appealed to
our target audience.
1. Main title in a big bold font, with a drop shadow to make it stand out.
2. Predominant image, a medium close up shot taken from the
documentary.
3. Strapline to give a brief overview of what the documentary is about.
4. Programme details, the time and channel of the documentary.
5. Secondary Images which are also taken from the documentary, and help
to break up the copy, making it more interesting for the reader.
6. Layout (text in columns), another aesthetic trick to break up the text.
7. Page Numbers add to the realism, making it like an actual TV magazine.
8. Drop Caps make the paragraphs distinct, and the text more interesting.

13. Ancillary Tasks: Listings Page
1
5
2
3 6
4
8
7

14. Ancillary Tasks: Radio Trailer
• In terms of following conventions
for the radio trailer, we included the
programme details, both at the
start and at the end. It was
important to give the details at the
end because this would be the last
thing to stick in the listeners mind.
• Extracting dramatic quotes from
the documentary was designed to
Above is what our radio trailer looked give listeners a preview of the
like when we were producing it in documentary, and make them want
GarageBand. We used both male to watch it, because the primary
and female voices so that we didn’t aim of the radio trailer (and listings
restrict our target audience. page) was to advertise our
programme.

15. How effective is the combination
of your main product and ancillary
tasks?

16. Radio Trailer
• The main purpose of the ancillary tasks is promotion and creation of a
brand identity. Well established brands (such as Cadburys) have a familiar
name and logo or colour, and often have some sort of catchphrase.
• In our radio trailer we ensured that we used the same name as in our
documentary – The Jobless Generation. We also included the same voices,
for example the presenter features in the radio trailer. However, we could
have combined the radio trailer better by using the presenters voice
throughout the radio trailer, rather than just small clips.
• The radio trailer could only be 30 seconds, so we had to significantly cut
down our first draft, meaning that we did not include what station our
radio trailer would have featured on.

17. Radio Trailer
• We were limited in terms of what music we could use because of
copyright laws, and ideally we should have used the same soundtrack
which runs through our documentary in the radio trailer. This would have
been an effective way of connecting the two, however this wasn’t
something which we thought about at the time.
• If we had been making a real radio trailer we could have used celebrity
voices to appeal to our target audience, but we may have also considered
whether a radio trailer would be the most effective method of advertising.
Perhaps a website, possibly a Facebook or Twitter page would be more
appropriate for our target audience which is 16-24 year olds, or a
television advert.

18. Listings Page
The listings page features five pictures taken from our documentary, giving an
element of consistency, and helping to establish a brand identity. There are
quotes in a slightly bigger font, which not only break up the text, but are also taken
from our documentary. This is good because hopefully readers will remember
them, watch the programme and make a link between the two products.
There is room for improvement concerning the title. Our documentary is called
‘The Jobless Generation’ and in the radio trailer we refer to it by the same name,
however the title on the listings page is ‘The Broken Generation’, and despite this
still being appropriate and dramatic, the products would have linked better if they
all maintained the same name.

19. Listings Page
• Although I do feel that our listings page is effective in promoting our
documentary, we could have made it more suitable for our target
audience, possibly by adding more colour (to the captions, quotations or
subheadings), or by having less white space.
• I don’t think that purely from looking at the listings page you would be
able to guess the target audience that it is aimed at.

20. What have you learned from your
audience feedback?

21. Audience feedback: Documentary
• Audience feedback was a crucial process in order for us to find out which
parts had been successful, and where there were improvements to be
make. We received feedback from 12 people, but obviously if we’d have
had more time we would have used a larger sample size. 6 people rated
our overall documentary as good, 5 rated it very good, and 1 person rated
it excellent. This was a positive overall result for us, and we were
pleasantly surprised that our project was well received.

22. Audience feedback: Documentary
• Some pictures of our audience feedback are shown below.

23. Audience feedback: Documentary
• Positive feedback was given with regards to the choice of topic, which
people generally thought was interesting, and current. People also
thought that the editing was effective. Other strengths highlighted in the
audience feedback were good cutting; relevant use of interviews; concept
and application of the case study; as well as the variety of locations use in
the filming.
Choice of Topic Editing

24. Audience feedback: Documentary
• We used a subtle dissolve transition
mainly throughout our
documentary, but we also used a
page peel transition to show a ‘new
chapter’ in our footage. People had
very mixed views in terms of our use
of transitions, as is evident in the
graph.

25. Audience feedback: Documentary
• 10 out of the 12 people who completed questionnaires for us commented
on poor sound quality. 5 referred to the sound as being fuzzy is places.
This was something which we had anticipated, as we were aware that in
some of our clips the sound was too quiet. We could have improved by re-
recording the clips where the sound was bad, particularly footage taken
from outside on windy days.
• Another alteration which we should have made was with the soundtrack,
which was too loud in some places, but could not be heard in others. This
inconsistency affected the professionalism of our documentary.
• 3 people noticed that the microphone crept into some of the shots. This
was an issue which we thought that we had addressed, as in Final Cut
there is a border, and the microphone was outside of this border so we
wrongly assumed that it would not be visible.
• Someone mentioned that the camera movement was shaky, however we
used a tripod during all of our filming, so I’m not sure how we would
improve this.

26. Audience feedback: Listings Page
• The feedback for the listings page was very positive.
People liked the layout and use of images, as well as
noticing how we’d used lots of conventions to instil a
sense of professionalism into the product.
• A possible area for improvement is the title could
have stood out more. It did have a drop shadow
added, but it would have maybe been better in a
different colour. People also said that the colour was
‘bland’ and that we could have used more colours.
This was something which I expected people to say, as
there was quite a lot of white space.
• A further suggestion made was that we could have
manipulated the images on Photoshop, adding effects
and making them stand out more. This was something
which we hadn’t thought of, but was a good idea.

27. Audience feedback: Radio Trailer
Strengths of the radio trailer were:
• Good use of voiceover, brings the trailer together and is informative.
• Appropriate cuts/snippets from taken from the documentary.
• Good use of soundtrack.
Weaknesses included:
• Sound levels seemed to change, they were imbalanced and inconsistent.
• Sound was fuzzy in places, meaning it was difficult to hear. We could have
re-recorded parts of the radio trailer to get around this problem.
• Sound bytes taken from the documentary could have been more
interesting or dramatic. We knew that this would be problematic, but
because of the poor sound quality in our documentary there was little that
we could do about it.
Despite the criticism which we received all the people who gave us feedback
rated our documentary 8 out of 10 or more.

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

29. Research and Planning
• In the research and planning stage we used websites such as YouTube, BBC
iPlayer and 4OD to watch the openings of documentaries.
• This enabled us to get ideas about possible topics, as well as note media
conventions and techniques used, and see what time documentaries were
broadcasted. We used a website called Blogger to set up a group blog,
which we could all upload posts to, showing each stage of the production
process, and being a record of what everyone had done. Blogger is a very
interactive site as it enabled you to upload text, images, videos and
sounds. We were group C03 and the link to our blog is below.
• http://c03documentary11.blogspot.com/
• We used PowerPoint to help us pitch our formal proposal, and then a
website called SlideShare to upload the PowerPoint onto the blog.

30. Research and Planning
• Once we had established our topic we used stills cameras to take photos
of potential ideas for footage.
• When taking photos it was important for us to consider the mise-en-
scene, which we wanted to be relevant to our topic, rather than just
random. Having an appropriate mise-en-scene made our documentary
more authentic and believable.
• We also had to think about camera angles and shots. When taking pictures
of something important we would use close-ups, but we also took
establishing shots which could be used in our opening montage to
familiarise the viewers with the setting.
• The lighting was also important, so we sometimes took several shots, just
in case there was a glare or shadow.

31. Research and Planning
• We used software called Comic Life
(which was a new programme to me) to
organise the images into Storyboards, to
plan each minute of our documentary.
• It was effective because we could put
images and text together and have a
framework for each section of our 5
minute programme. I did the storyboard
for the opening minute.

32. Construction
• When it came to filming our documentary we used the video cameras. It
was vital that we knew how to use the cameras properly as if we didn’t
the footage would be poor quality.
• We learnt how to use the zoom, and how to alter the lighting effects on
the camera. Whenever we were filming we used the tripod, in an attempt
to have stable footage because the camera was kept still. Also this helped
us to frame the shots correctly, so that they weren’t at wonky angles or
looking unprofessional.
• We used a microphone, particularly when it came to filming our interviews
so that the sound was clearer, because the video camera didn’t always
pick up the sound clearly.
• We also learnt how to upload our video recordings to the macs. On the
Apple Macs we used Final Cut Express, GarageBand, Photoshop and some
other software. All of these programmes were new to us, but we picked
up quickly how they worked.

33. Construction
• The internet allowed us to arrange
interviews with professionals, who
were experienced in the
employment field. We e-mailed
them to inform them of our project
and ask if they would help us.
• Final Cut Express was the software
which we used to organise our
footage. We selected the bits of
video which we wanted to keep,
then logged and transferred it,
before organising it into which
minutes we would put it in. We
could add captions and sound
easily, and even reframe shots.

34. Construction
The viewer – shots can be
Imported files (footage, music, voiceover, reframed here
still images and the ident) are organised
in this top left hand corner
The timeline- clips, images, transitions and sound are all dragged down here.

35. Construction
• We imported sound bytes and music
into GarageBand , where we could
manipulate the sound levels.
• InDesign was the programme used for
making the listings page, because a
simple layout can be constructed, then
images and text can be added. InDesign
allowed us to format the text into
columns, and use features such as a drop
shadow for the title.

36. Evaluation
• We checked that our documentary was in the correct format and burnt it
to disc, using a simple software called idvd. Having been using the macs all
along we checked that the disc played in a pc, before showing it to the
class.
• For my evaluation I used PowerPoint, and simply print screened important
parts of the process, then copied and pasted them. I then used SlideShare,
which I referred to earlier so that it could be accessed on the blog.