1. OCR A2 Media Studies Advanced
Portfolio Evaluation
Behaviour Managing Britain
Bonnie Hartrey

2. My task.
I was required to create a documentary film opening with a duration of 5 minutes.
I learnt the codes and conventions of a documentary in order to help myself decide what to use in my
documentary in order to make it an effective and enjoyable piece. I looked at the various codes and
conventions in detail including Fly on the wall, Cinema verite, Voice-overs, Narration, Archive footage, Re-
enactments.
I watched multiple types of documentary films in order to give myself an
idea of what could be used in my own piece. One of the documentaries I
watched was The Imposter, which was within the thriller genre. I found
that the imposter was an extremely gripping and enjoyable film. The film
consists of a variety of talking head interviews in order to create a sense
of realism and allow the audience to connect with what is being said.
After watching this film I decided to use multiple talking head interviews
in my own film order to create a sense of realism and allow the audience
to see that the interviewee’s are genuine and passionate about what
they say.

3. I set out to make a documentary, which was going to allow a lot of people to feel
connected and relate to the topic, in order to allow my documentary to be effective and
for people to recognise and appreciate the message that I was attempting to give.
I decided to make the documentary about school behaviour as it is a subject , which is
continuously brought up in the media, as it becomes an increasing problem for majority
of schools throughout the United Kingdom.
My documentary is extremely similar to documentary's like ‘Educating Essex’ and
‘Educating Yorkshire’ as they are programs, which are also about British schools and
related to the behaviour in schools. They are also about how behaviour is an extremely
important aspect of teaching, as it has a huge impact on children’s education in majority
of schools because a students inability to behave in school and focus on their work
affects the education of both the student who is misbehaving and ultimately anybody
around them. For example close friends, class mates, and also teachers because having
to deal with a students misconduct makes them incapable of doing their job as they are
not able to educate other students in the class, whilst dealing with another students
behaviour.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

4. I used various tracks over sections of my documentary, which linked to the theme which was
being explored. The reason behind me using this music was because music affects how a
person thinks and feels and I wanted people to feel emotionally affected and connected to
the documentary allowing the message to be stronger and more effective. For example, I
added an inspirational track over the video footage and narration of a student who had
made huge progress in allowing himself to overcome his bad behaviour and as a result his
education is radically improving giving him a chance of attaining high grades in his GCSEs. I
used inspirational audio I used over this section of the documentary in order to allow the
audience to feel more emotionally affected by the students progress and to feel a sense of
achievement has been made. I intentionally included George’s name and made his story
personal in order to allow the audience to feel close with George so that they can feel
affected by his progress and sense of achievement.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?

5. What type of documentary is
Behaviour managing Britain?
Behaviour
managing
Britain
Expository
speaks directly to the
viewer in an
authoritative
commentary using
voiceover or titles,
proposing a strong
argument and point of
view.
I use a rich and sonorous male
voice, which I use as a voice-of-
God narration. I was originally
going to use my own voice in
my documentary, however a
male voice is usually used for
documentary, as it is a much
more powerful and stronger
voice of authority than a young
women’s voice. I believed that
this impact of the male voice
would make him appear much
more reliable and trustworthy
to the audience because of the
strong impact his narration had.
Observational
It observes
real life.
I also included voice-over
commentary, dialogue, music, and
re-enactments, which our
observational techniques.
Observational documentary is
usually aimed at individual human
character in ordinary life situations,
which is included in my
documentary as it is about the
behaviour in British Schools, which
appears to be an ongoing issue in
Britain.

6. Filming interviews
I used the XF 100 camera when filming my interviews, as it was
extremely high definition which was important for the purpose
of my documentary, as the footage needs to be clear and visible
in order to create a sense of realism. The XF 100 produces a
much higher quality than the handicams I previously used I decided to use this
camera, as the camera I previously used in AS produced poor quality of filming in AS
due to poor image quality and sound produced by the basic handicams. The
background noise cancelling setting on the XF 100 was extremely important for the
purpose of interview as it meant that the speech was clear and that the audience
could understand and follow what the interviewee was trying to say. An example of
when the noise cancelling setting on the camera was crucial for my documentary
was when videoing one of the teachers in my documentary, there was a lot of
background noise coming from the corridor, fortunately because of the noise
cancelling setting this noise was not picked up by the camera.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?

7. Recording audio
I recorded the audio for my documentary in a recording studio
using the following technology: Mic, Apple Mac, mixing deck. I
used this technology in order to make sure that the sound of my
narration was of a high quality, in order to make it as clear as
possible for the audience to understand.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?

8. After gathering all of my archive footage, interview, voice recording, music, pictures I imported all of
my media onto iMovie. In total I had 2 hours of footage for 5 minutes of a documentary film.
After editing down the footage and selecting the relevant footage for the purpose of my documentary I
was then left with 20 minutes of footage. I then dropped the remaining footage into my film timeline. I
then edited all of the relevant footage splitting the clips into sections, which best presented and
defined the message I was trying to give for the purpose of my documentary.
How I created Behaviour managing Britain using iMovie

9. I then added audio to my movie timeline. After detaching the audio from various clips I added voice overs
using audio that I had taken from interviews with various staff at the school, which was related to the
video in the documentary giving the audience a clearer understanding of the affect behaviour has in local
schools. I used various tracks over sections of my documentary, which linked to the theme which was
being explored. In order to section my footage I used a number of transitions throughout my documentary
including fades. I also used video footage with detached audio in order to create a transition between
sections of my documentary, for example when the music changed, the subject changed or there was a
transition between one interview to another. I also added titles to my documentary, which introduced the
interviewees and their role. I also added title to my documentary introduce the topic and the questions
which the interviewee were being asked. I created multiple different layers of editing when adding all of
my audio and video into the timeline. This made the editing complex, as every layer of footage had to be
in the exact place in order for it to be presented accurately and for the audio and video to link together.
How I created Behaviour managing Britain using iMovie

10. Difference in project type
My AS and A2 projects were
completely different as at AS I
was required to complete a
thriller film, which was fictional
meaning it didn’t involve as
much f thought or planning as I
didn’t have to create a sense of
realism, which proved
challenging in A2 when trying to
make my documentary appear as
close to ordinary life as possible.
When creating my documentary
at A2 I had to plan to make sure
that my documentary film
represented the truth and how
to make sure that the audience
would believe and trust that my
documentary represented the
truth.
Difference in processes to
create it
At AS the process was quite
simple as I only needed original
footage and a non-diegetic
sound track as there was not any
diegetic sound in my thriller
movie. However, when creating
my A2 product it was a really
different process, as in order to
create my documentary much
more media was needed
including original footage,
archive footage, audio recording,
interviews, voice overs, which
meant that much more editing
was required in A2.
Technical skill development
At A2 I have extremely improved
my editing skills At AS I only used
a couple of layers in my editing as
it was linear meaning that there
wasn’t much editing needed.
However, at A2 the editing was
extremely complex and non-
linear so I needed to use a
multiple amount of layers
including sound, voice overs,
video, text, subtitles, and
interview.
Importance of message
At A2 I didn’t have to focus on the
importance of a message as in my
thriller film I did not intend to
deliver a specific message to the
audience.
However, because a documentary
represents the truth the message it
provides is extremely important.
This meant that when creating my
A2 documentary it was important
that I made sure that anything
included in my documentary didn’t
offend or make any individual feel
uncomfortable because the
message was about about a real
topic, and may also been a
personal and difficult subject for
some people. It was also important
that I made sure that anybody
included in my documentary was
happy to have their personal
thoughts and views public.
Progress from AS Thriller to A2 Documentary

11. My documentary, radio advert, and poster are
closely linked, as they all have the same theme,
tone, content and colour scheme.
I put a lot of time into research for my adverts, in
order to be able to see what was best for the
purpose of advertisement for my documentary. I
also used the style guide in order to make sure that
my documentary would be compliant for a channel
four film advert.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

12. Research for documentary advert
(similar documentary advert)
In order to get inspiration for my own documentary
poster and to help decided what type of style would both
make my documentary look effective and match the
content I decided to research both the layout and style of
similar documentary adverts with the same content
about the education in schools and the effect behaviour
has on the learning. These programs included Educating
Essex, Educating Yorkshire.

14. Target audience

15. Research for documentary advert
(channel four style guide)
When taking into consideration the content of my
documentary I decided that Channel Four would be the most
suitable channel to broadcast my documentary. After deciding
to use Channel Four I then researched the style guide for
Channel Four Advertisements in order to make sure that my
advert complied with the standards of a Channel Four poster.

16. Compliance with Channel Four style
guide

17. Compliance with Chanel Four style
guide

18. Compliance with Channel Four style
guide

19. Compliance with Channel Four style
guide

20. Newspaper advert (first draft)
After receiving feedback from other members of the group I decided that I could
improve my newspaper advert by including the dates and times of the show I
was advertising, so that anybody who was interested in my documentary would
know exactly where and when to watch my documentary.

21. Final draft pic
As a result of the feedback I included the date and time that my documentary
would be starting. I also included the channel four logo in the bottom right of
the picture so that people would know what channel my documentary will be
aired on. Also the Channel 4 logo will give anybody reading the advertisement
an idea of what the documentary is about, as they will be aware of Channel 4s
content.

22. Research survey responses:
This is an example of the survey that I have used in order to retrieve mixed views and
opinions about what a documentary about badly behaved pupils should be about in order to
help with the planning and research of my documentary.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?

23. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

24. Audience feedback

25. Audience feedback – What I found out
I took into the account that my documentary wasn't clear of it's message as it wasn't clear whether
I was trying to talk about the behaviour of students in general or the improvement and history of an
individual school in Bristol, which some of the facts I included about the school were inaccurate. In
order to avoid confusion I decided to avoid the background of the school Oasis Academy John
Williams and introduced the schools behaviour rather than including too much background
information about the school and its history in order to avoid mixed messages. Because of this
change I ultimately decided to change the name of my documentary from 'Educating Oasis' to
'Behaviour Managing Britain' generalising my documentary about students behaviour over the
country and how it as improved rather than focusing only on the school Oasis Academy I used the
school as one example of other schools in Britain, as if I were to finish the documentary I would
later go on to visit other schools. I also changed my narration in order to make sure that my
documentary generalised behaviour in Britain over a wide range of schools rather than talking
about Oasis Academy as an individual school and its behaviour. This allows my documentary to now
give a clear message of what it is really about and avoids confusion for the audience.
I also took into account that spectators had made a point about some of the shots at the beginning
being 'too busy' or 'too jumpy' making the narration difficult to follow and concentrate on. My
intention of using sped up film footage, busy shots, handheld shots and as a result shaken was to
reflect and capture the hectic and frantic nature of most secondary schools, however I could
understand the point that was being made, so in order to improve this I have cut the amount of
shots making it easier to follow. However I have kept the nature of the shots in the beginning quite
chaotic in order to fulfil my intention of setting the scene.

26. Critical theory
The Expository Mode
•‘The voice-of-God tradition fostered the cultivation of the professionally trained, richly toned male voice of
commentary that proved a hallmark of the expository mode even though some of the most impressive films chose
less-polished voices precisely for the credibility gained by avoiding too much polish.’ Bill Nichols – Introduction to
Documentary (p.167)
This quote applies to my documentary as I used a rich and sonorous male voice, which I use as a voice-of-God
narration, as I believed the impact of the male voice would make him appear much more reliable and trustworthy
to the audience because of the strong impact his narration had.
John Corner 1995 – ‘’What distinguishes a documentary is the portrayal of sound and images of actuality’’
John Corner’s theory links to my documentary, as I show the image of a real and typical school environment in this
present time . I show the real life problems within the school education system without hiding any important facts.
Film makers opinion – ‘’All attempts to record reality is affected as people act differently on camera’’
This theory applies to my documentary as one of the students in my film is known for showing off in front of an
audience, therefore him being filmed may have potentially caused him to misbehave more than usual for the
camera.
Dianne Tammes - ‘Everybody who makes a film is putting their own truth on the screen’
Dianne Tammes’ theory applies in my documentary as I don’t have a balanced argument in my documentary,
which may make people think my documentary is biased because everyone I had interviewed agreed that the
educational landscape has changed throughout the years and that the behaviour has got worse. People may see
this as me putting my own truth on screen because I don’t show any interviews with students or teachers that
don’t believe this is the case. Viewers may also see it as biased because I don’t show any students views or
opinions. I also think this quote means that a film maker will do any thing in their power to get there point across
for the purpose of their documentary, which I think I do extremely well as I create a strong argument for the
viewers because of the amount of video and sound I use to back up and support my point throughout the
documentary, which persuades the viewer to agree with and feel emotionally affected by the point that I make.

27. I feel that my film was extremely successful and I was pleased with the end result
because I had achieved what I had set out to do completing my documentary to a
high quality and standard. I was happy with the way I was able to display the
reality and the truth of Education in schools after showing a range of different
peoples opinions and views. I was able to give a clear and strong message after
giving an insight of an individuals life and how behaviour has affected his
education after his inability to control his behaviour resulted in him being in
isolation and as a result missing out on vital classes and work for his GCSES. I feel
that I was able to target my audience extremely well and I have high hope that my
documentary will allow individuals to be emotionally affected by the
documentary, which may allow anybody in a similar situation to the young pupil in
my documentary to realise that behaviour can have serious negative effects on
education, however there is always hope for that pupil to be rehabilitated if they
are willing to work in partnership with the school to ensure that they can put
themselves back on the route to a good education and positive future. I also feel
that the subject of my documentary is something, which is commonly talked
about and is currently a major concern for the public this meant that my
documentary would interest a wide range of people. I was able to include many
different codes and conventions into my documentary including voice over's,
narration, interviews.