By: Karen Pang

Evaluatio

n

Quote: Documentary Film (D. F.

book)

“Anyone who believes that every individual film must represent a „balanced‟ pictures knows nothing about either balance or pictures.” Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow

This quote is very interesting as no documentaries truly represents both sides of the argument equally, as most documentaries wants the viewer to come to a conclusion of whether they understand the serious message, after all that is the purpose of documentaries.

1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Our documentary:

During our research into fast food and

healthy food options, we came across

a product called Quorn, the following

weeks we were able to get an interview

with them.

Furthermore, in following the conventions

in making an documentary necessarily

mean having expert interviews, for

example: the interview with a Quorn

employee represents a person with higher

knowledge then the general public, as

they‟re hired to advertise the product due

to it‟s positive health care as quote, „great

meat free alternative‟.

We decided to interview her at the canteen and in front of the already set up stand to

give a suitable mise-en-scene background with the posters on the wall and the huge

poster next to the table, but also a nice mid-shot of the apron that has the

brand/company logo.

When we were first introduced to our task of making a five minutes opening to a documentary

and to create a radio trailer plus a double page article to advertise our documentary, we had to do

some research.

In the frame works of the Rule of

Third she was positioned on the

left as we normally read from left

to right, so our eyes would look on

that side first.

Just like that internet photograph.

Continue…

The Student Development Team members gave expert interviews, as their career and

purpose is to take care of the student‟s well-being at The Sixth Form College, Solihull.

Within their interviews we had gathered important information of what the college provide for

students, such as the kind of sports and events currently happening, it had been highlighted for the

viewers attention.

This is a convention seen in real documentaries where the experts presents their views across to

the audience based on what they know and what they think is worth knowing. This makes the

documentary balance out the facts and arguments for the viewers to judge the conclusion of this

issue.

Noting: all non diegetic sounds which allows the viewers to locate the sound on screen.

Continue…

Vox pops were also included in revealing just how much the general public knows

about the topic of fast food and healthy lifestyle.

Asking the students at the

college allows us to

understand how much they

know about this topic and if

they seemingly lack

information, then hopefully this

documentary would highlight

some worth knowable facts.

Vox pops are used to get the

genuine reaction and

response to direct questions

being asked, their replies

contain their level of concern

about health issues.

Another commonly used

Developed conventions

After looking at Super Size Me (2004) documentary, we took note that they had use

many graphic generated images, so we also decided to use this technique in our

documentary.

We had said in our voice over that there

are 9,000 deaths per year therefore, we

need an image that could express that.

So using Photoshop I had created a

poster that warns people of the ever

increasing rate of deaths due to obesity.

The use of shocking images are

commonly used to get a messages

across to viewers.

This image is used in the introduction

of the Vox pops, in asking students at

college about the choice between

having chips or a healthy meal for

lunch. This Photoshop render image

shows people making decision on the

spot. I find it looks very effective and

interesting.

After looking at this chart

in the documentary we

choose not to use it, as it‟s

too different and doesn‟t fit

in and it wasn‟t enough to

keep the viewers

entranced; this chart was

done on Excel.

Introduction of our

documentary:

We have started off by stating facts but the beginning statement remands the best in our

documentary, „one in every three people in the UK are obese‟. Afterwards we collected some

internet images of obese people and the effect of obesity has on their lifestyle, with music and

effect it was enough to let the viewers know what this documentary is on about.

As Berry Hampe said, „no speech- as the documentary shows us that the pictures can speak

for themselves,‟ and we had used this technique at the beginning but showing images of obese

people and how they had become obese, these are all negative images however, we had two

pictures of obese men exercising.

Different types of shots that were

used in the documentary:

Zoom in and establish shot:

This shot is a combine of an establish shot

which inform viewers where this location is,

whist we were recording it we zoom in closer

to the title for it to be more clear.

This shot is taken slightly slighted to make it

into a sort of frame.

We used this shot during the voice over which

talks about the weight loss option. We show a

company that provides health care, as a

solution to a better lifestyle.

Pan shot:

Whist we were introducing the college we did

a pan shot where the camera is in the same

place, except we are moving the camera

from left to right very slowly.

We used this shot as there were students

and you can clearly recognize the entrance

to the main Hampton building.

Continue… on shots

Over the shoulder and high angle

shot:

The main focus of this shot is the

image in the newspaper advertising

their cheaply priced food. The camera

was located beside the shoulder and

it‟s pointing downwards. Which allows

the viewer to feel like they‟re the ones

reading the newspaper.

We look at the mid shot of her typing into the

computer, which then becomes a zoom in shot

developing into an over the shoulder shot. So

that the viewer can see what she‟s typing into

the website.

Mid shot with zoom in and over the

shoulder:

Continue… on shots

360 degree shot:

We had filming the entire gym room with all the equipment, we settled the

camera in the center of the room and left two people with the camera filming and

the other went outside the room. As it‟s was easier with less people dodging the

camera‟s lens.

We had made sure the lighting was bright even though it was indoors, this

section of filming was a very interesting experience over all.

Continue… on shots

Mid shot:High Angle shot:

We have filmed Jamie speed walking down

the stairs to represent using energy as the

voice over mentioned.

This was filmed free handed without a tripod

as it would have been difficult to set the

camera tripod on the steps and from that

angle from the flight of stair above it had

look better.

And it has looked bright due to the use of

natural lighting.

During the interviews with people we had to

do it professionally, so all the interviews were

done on tripod so it wouldn‟t be slighted or

shaky, done in natural lighting. This is a

commonly used technique because if we had

used a free hand camera it would have

looked unprofessional.

The shaky free hand style are commonly

used in horror movie to give a sense of fear.

Continue… on shots

Still image framed and close up:

This was

definitely fun to

do, as they‟re

still images of

each bite I had

taken of the

burger, it‟s like

a point of view

shot as if your

consuming the

burger

yourself.

All of these shots are framed as it‟s taken on top of the brown McDonald‟s bag as

though it‟s were a stage and the whole meal is presented neatly. Then there are a

sequence of close up shots of the burger bite by bite being consumed, the stills were

all taken within the burger cardboard box used as a frame. And finally ended with the

crushed box of the big mac with the title still clearly visual, for an effective look.

Archive Footage

We had to used some archive footage in our documentary as these were impossible

to film in such a short period of time so we had to use the internet for this, because it

was necessary to express the huge influence of the media has on our lifestyle.

Including filming advertisements from the computer screen, we filmed the

McDonalds, Quorn, Burger King and Special K advertisements that normally comes

on the televisions screen.

Contradiction of what is being

said…

This may be a strange part of the documentary as the

voice over is discussing about malnutrition however the

image is talking about an opposite story of a man

developing into an obese person.

This was deliberately used to explain that not

everything is true and some of the things we learn are

lies. The result can be quite fatal due to the lies we

hear, as we‟re always being influenced by the media in

what is currently the best for people. However I

strongly believe that the audience should always be

given a equal amount of information on healthy food for

example the list of pros and cons of being healthy and

not healthy.

Therefore, using this method of portraying evidence

allows the viewers to think about the two types of

importance in a healthy lifestyle.

All documentary has an a

goal…

A documentary is „a theatrical movie that isn‟t fun – a serious movie something that

tries to teach you something,‟ (D. F. Book Patrica Aufderheide) the aim in all docs.

Our documentary „Your Health Is No Joke‟ tries to get the message across to viewers

of the increasing health issues in relation to fast food, then later on after explaining

about the influence the media has on us, we provide a solution to a better lifestyle. And

that is explained through the use of the interview with Neil who‟s part of the Student

Development team, in his interview he says by doing sports and eating healthy is a

way to a healthy lifestyle to a good life. And not only does he provide a strong

argument of the importance of a healthy lifestyle, he had also reveals he use to work in

McDonalds and knows how “unhealthy” it is. This may clear any misunderstanding of

people who are manipulated into thinking that the food is ok.

This documentary tries to highlight that we DO have a CHOICE in how we eat and live

and those who says there is no choice they‟re only giving excuses to themselves.

The „role‟ of using a voice

over…Stan Brakhage considers himself as a documentarian

and a scientist as he tries to get viewers to return to

an “innocent eye” in his creation of documentaries

they were made mostly in “silence and executed”

forcing the viewers to look at character‟s actual body

action instead of focusing on what they say.

(D. F. Book by Aufderheide)

In our research we had looked at the Rolling Stone

(1969's Altamont Festival) documentary where they

have challenged convention such as there were no

voice overs in their documentary, they were just

recording what‟s there at the concert in a style of a fly

on the wall.

They had used one of the six theory by Bill Nichols

of Observation and they had kept to it, to reveal the

reality of what happens at a concert.

However, we decided a voice over is better as it‟s

more understandable for there to be a guiding voice

that presents the facts and questions that makes

viewers reflect on their own lifestyle choices.

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

Challenged the conventions:

• This article is called „Your Health Is No

Joke‟ the title is place on the top and is

positioned across both pages, this had

challenged the convention as it‟s normally

on the left hand side.

• The A4 photograph is placed underneath

the article‟s text, when it could have been

on the right hand page on it‟s own. The

photograph is a suitable one as it‟s related

to food so it‟s a effective image plus it gets

the message across directly to the readers

what‟s the topic is about.

Followed the conventions:

• Of having more than one photograph.

• Use of similar theme colours red, yellow

and black which is similar to the

McDonald‟s theme colour.

• It has the page numbers at the top with the

magazine name „Radio Times‟ to inform

readers which magazine they‟re reading.

• The most effective is the second biggest

font at the bottom is the date, time, and

place in bold black font style. „THIS

It does advertise the documentary well, the

content is very topic related but doesn‟t give

too much away about the documentary.

Double Page Article

Continue… Radio Trailer done in Garage

Band

The radio trailer had

been a successful piece

in my own opinion, it

was created on Garage

Band program as it had

included voice over

(narrator) and the best

extracts with good sound

level from the

documentary that is

most direct in getting the

message across about

what the documentary is

advertising about.

The music used in the

radio trailer was the

same as the ones used

in the documentary, so it

shares an common

feature for a direct

connection.

1}

2}

3}

1} On that track it was all the radio voice over that had been split

apart to fit the extract in.

2} We had exported three good sound extracts that is direct and

clear on the topic it‟s discussing and placed it after the voice over

gaps.

3} I had selected to use these three music tracks that were made

early for the documentary and now for the radio trailer.

When forming the radio script…

At first I was creating scripts that weren‟t good enough, as it lacks some good extracts from the

documentary.

But later on after talking to my teacher, he advise us to carefully listen to our documentary and

pick out good extracts that has a good sound level and contain a direct message in relation to

our topic.

We choose three extracts, here are the quotes:

“Used to work in McDonalds and I know how unhealthy it is” this was from Neil‟s interview and

it would definitely get people interested in hearing what a pervious McDonald employee has to

say for himself. As I find it‟s important for a person who had first hand experience in creating

unhealthy food for people, he as an insider can observe the causes and effects of fast food.

This gives a balance argument on behalf of the fast food and health care.

„‟So it‟s a great meat free alternative” this was from the interview with the employee from

Quorn, we come to understand exactly what alternative solution there are for people who

doesn‟t want to cook or enjoys cooking but still manage creating high calories within the food.

“How unhealthy they are and the amount of salt” from Julie‟s interview, aren‟t all people curious

about what other people know on certain topics, it good to listen to other people‟s opinion

based on the same topic.

Documentary was effective but

need improvements:

“Generally we learn how to operate our technology long before we really have any

clear idea of what we want to do with it” (Making documentary films and reality

videos by Barry Hampe)

I guess this is partly true when we were told about the three tasks of making an 5

minutes opening to a documentary, and a 30- 40 seconds radio trailer and double

page article. We focused on too much on how we‟re going to film instead of

planning exactly what we wanted to show through the filming.

We only focused on it more during the editing of the clips, if I could re do it again, as

Hampe said the important part that needs working on is the “selecting and

organizing what has been recorded to present a visual argument to your audience.”

As I found the argument in our documentary provides a lot of facts however it

doesn‟t get right to the point therefore lacks a strong tone, which I find is important.

Therefore…

The combination of those three products were very effective and I find it supports

the documentary well, in explaining terms and advertising it.

The documentary itself needs improvements in the editing section, however the

radio trailer I find really advertise the documentary with the music and the expert

interviews, which clearly indicates what this documentary is about.

The double page spread magazine helped highlight a more detailed description of

what the documentary‟s purpose is and what is to be expected from this

documentary.

DocumentaryArticle Radio Trailer

3.) What have you learnt from your

audience feedback?

It‟s on the blog clearly labeled as part of this evaluation.

So please go to the blog and find the Prezi presentation I have created.

4.) How did you use new media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During this evaluation research I have watched a DVD called: Britain Through a Lens: The

Documentary Film Mob that lasted 60 minutes on BBC 4) that was based on how the

existence of documentary style was developed.

When John Grierson first talked his idea to one of the Government‟s man about funding towards

his project in making a documentary based on reality filming, he talked with utter confidence and

passion. He believes and „want to use films to change Britain for the better.‟

The man he had discussed it with had agreed to his request and lead some funding from the

marketing department, which was enough for him to start off in getting equipment for this project.

After creating a documentary movie without a plot or handsome main characters that follows the

script, it turned out to be a very “honestly made” documentary as it didn‟t have many

editing, which is commonly used for picking out the important statements people make to

highlight certain phrase but without that we‟re left to come to a conclusion by ourselves.

Unlike movies where things are all planned out and are full of action.

Not only people at the cinema are able to understand different class lifestyle and culture

differences, they were able to feel connect to those people and see the life they have to live in

order to live.

Research…

We had done a majority of different types of method to gather information such as

making questionnaire about the knowledge on fast food. This helped us understand

what the target audience knew about fast food and what areas that they didn‟t

understand as much, as it gives a goal for our documentary to provide more

information to the audience.

When creating the documentary I had looked at documentaries and program in

related to fast food eating and see what we could use similarly in following

conventions.

When researching the article I have looked at existing T.V. choices (2012)

magazine‟s double page spread to look at their layout and try to refer to some of the

conventions later on in designing the article.

In creating the music for the documentary and radio radio trailer I looked at this

website http://www.ibaudio.com/?Page=BrowseCategories&CategoryID=32 for

inspirations.

For the actual radio trailer research we, as a group, had listened to some real radio

trailers, hearing how they made it attractive for the audience to want to watch the

Target Audience

Research was to listen to radio trailers on the internet and on a radio.

Our target audience is unisex as health problems affects everyone not only minority of

people so it‟s only right to inform everyone of the dangers of being obese. The age

rangers from 16 till 25 because young people and young adults are always wanting a

more convenient method of having a quick fix meal, which could be the reason of there

being an increase over the years of the illness of obesity.

That is why we choose during our research of the channel we were going to broadcast our

documentary on BBC3 at 7pm, as all the films and reality TV. shows like Junior Doctors

comes on around 6-7 o‟clock which makes it an ideal time for our documentary to follow

behind it as the general target audience is still viewing that channel and for something to

be so similar in topic on health would surely capture their attention. I‟m sure the audience

would find the documentary easy to accept. Note: BBC 3 had younger viewers in mind

and so is our target audience for our documentary.

This kind of research was done on the internet from looking at BBC 1 to 4‟s target

audience, as all channels have to entertain, inform and educate and we consider our

documentary has the key elements of informing and educating plus we try and make

it as entertaining as possible whilst the topic is a serious one.

Introduction to interviews

We introduced the Qourn

interview with their own archive

footage of a Quorn‟s product

commercial.

Text on

image

Image of the

interview

This is her

voice on

audio.

Pan establish shot of the

college.

Still pictures of sports activity

that is available in college.Interview with Neil the Student

Development Team member.

It gives a nice introduction to interviews you get an understanding of who they are and

what they like, which makes you feel closer to the person. Therefore, you may listen to

what they have to say with additional attention.

All the main article

text for this topic is

on the left hand

side, it‟s in a black

serif font with a

white stroke to

make it more

readable.

Masthead: „Your Health Is No Joke‟ is positioned across

two of the double page. This challenges the

conventions of an article‟s layout, however because it‟s

at the top area it follows convention as well.

We had used this

title because it‟s

has a direct point of

what the topic is

focused on.

Following

conventions the

page number and

magazine name are

in the corners. This

follows the

convention of all

magazines, to be

organize and

informative of which

magazine readers

have brought.

It challenges the

conventions by

placing the

illustration

underneath the text

instead of placing it

by itself on the right

hand page.

Pull Quote which stands out

and must be highlighted to

the readers. Again have

used a black stroke around

white font text.

Have some

interesting facts of

health risk due to

obesity and of hunger

so it kind of represent

both sides of the

argument.

The used of different

font styles, challenge

conventions as

normally magazine

stick to two font

styles within one

article.

However it does look

very eye

catching, plus it a

short sentences it

makes the facts easy

Using space, by

adding another

illustration, clearl

y seen as a

photograph of

Quorn Company.

Clearly states the

time of when this

documentary is

on, in large font

labeled.

Double page article done in InDesign

Comparison with our

documentary…

When first hearing about making a documentary as a group we had to think of

interesting topics to base it on and we have choose fast food and healthy lifestyle. I

completely understand that many people have done similar ones like ours however, I

find even though the topic is exactly the same and the health risks are all the same. It

doesn‟t lessen the dangers of being unhealthy, nor do people think about it

concerning enough. Because each documentary are made with a different tone, the

people involved in the making, desperately, wants to voice their opinions, in getting

the message across to the audience.

At first we we just doing light surface research, but when watching other current

programs such as Supersize VS Super skinny (2012/13), we understand in a more

knowledgeable way just how much it had effect people‟s lives. The harmless look of

food and advertisements has easily fool us into thinking those illnesses won‟t happen

to us, but whose to guarantee it wouldn‟t happen after all those people who are obese

didn‟t do it to themselves single handedly. Our message of this documentary is to highlight that there

are CHOICES that we can make for a better health for our

selves.

In our documentary

Well we followed a structure when we first wrote the script for the documentary, it started off with some shocking

facts, then we talked about the influence the media has on our life decision making in advertisements related to

fast food or processed food.

We give Vox pop opinions they represent the general public, as for professional interviews we had arranged to talk

to the Student Development Team. I find this as very important for people who wonder exactly what the college is

doing to support their children‟s health. So exploring this through our documentary we come to an understanding

the college effects and students are encourage to be more active. We also spoke to a employee who works for

Quorn which is a brand/company that provide a meat free alternative as a healthy meal choice. Then we had

highlighted how fast food chains try to deceive with the harmless looking food and the shots of people walking in

and out of food food stores without a single hesitation in ordering a meal. We call this the „Observational Mode‟

where people act as normal in every day life, it reveals these choices were made subconscious, it makes me hope

this documentary make people at the very least think twice about what they choose for themselves.

The observational mode is one of the six types from the theory Bill Nichols made, but normally there wouldn‟t be

music or voice overs. But because we have voice over, it is meant to help the viewers understand what is

happening.

Observational Mode: These people are

acting utterly normal, without noticing the

camera is filming.

The other 5 types are:

• The poetic mode

• The expository mode- which we had used as the voice over

is considered as the „Voice of God‟ commentary where the

speaker is heard but never seen.

• The participatory mode

• The reflexive mode-meaning recording footage and editing it

to give it a form of an argument of pros and cons.

• The performative mode

Program used for creating computer

generated poster/image done in Photoshop

Because our voice over said there are „9000 deaths per year‟ is due to fast

food causing obesity, I thought to just place an image of obese size coffins

as a shocking image however I find that it DOESN‟T explain things

clearly, I decided to create a poster instead to express the voice over

phrase. I had find a unique font style for the title on defont.com and used a

illustration of a person and I copied and pasted it 9 times, then place them

under the coffin photograph to symbolise 9000 people‟s death. By adding

the fast food logos making it much more direct of what they died from.

Title created on

www.dafont.com

saying „Obesity Kills.‟

The person illustration was

found on google.com and

next to it I put an equal sign

of 1,000 people, it

symbolize that fact.

I added an image of a

coffin.These are the

illustration of

people who had

died of obesity

they are all place

under the coffin.

Here are the

logos of fast food

stores, they‟re

the ones partly

guilty of these

deaths that

happen per year.

Continues…

Here we were talking about the students at the The sixth form college, Solihull making choices

on food, whether they would choose Chips which is greasy and high in fibre but not healthy as a

meal or they could to have a healthy meal. This image is a render piece of the students making

choices of on a panel e.g. like a pop quiz style. I find the reaction on these cartoon colour blob

people face‟s are realistic as the first person is confused and another thinks about having

chips, the other two honestly said they would choose healthy meal.

How our documentary was

made…We had to learn to use many new equipment during filming of the documentary, these are the

items: • Tripod- is to use to make a steady shot and can

be used in turning the recorder camera.

• Shot gun Microphone- to be used to pick up the

voice of the person it‟s pointing at.

• Camera-for still images.

• Headphone- to listen back what is being recorded

in the recorder camera.

• Recorder camera- specially used in filming and

recording.

• Mac- computer

• Scanner – allows to scan piece of papers through

to the computer.

• (Logo and transfer)

• (Putting together the equipment for filming.)

Microphone lead

and plug into the

recorder camera.

How to use these equipment…

1.) Here is a recording I have done of myself

putting the equipment together for the recording.

The setting up of the tripod with the recorder

camera and the shot gun mircophone with the

headphone.

2.) Here is a second recording of how

to log and transferring the recording

clips onto the mac for it to be ready for

editing.

This video of me setting up the equipment is on

youtube.com, it‟s called: How to do it step by step by K.P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsJxlU4YAwg

I have demonstrated how to use the equipment in a correct

way, showing my understanding of how to use these new

media equipment.

I also have filmed myself logging and

transferring data from the camera recorder

onto the Fine Cut on the Mac.

It‟s in the second part of this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsJxlU4YAw

g

The documentary…

We created our documentary on Fine Cut software on

the Mac, we never used this program before so we

aren‟t exactly experts on it.

We had to worked hard in writing up the script that

included not only research of figures but also to have a

clear message of the purpose of this documentary.

Whist collecting footage for the script we were „logging

and transferring‟ all the recordings onto Fine Cut for

editing we had to choose the best ones, as some either

weren‟t clear and some Vox pop interview answers are

just non-related to the documentary.

The music we have chosen to use were exactly the

same from the radio trailer, reason being is that we want

to leave a direct link from these two products.

We have also gave introduction to expert interviews for

example the interview with the Quorn employee and

with the college‟s Student Development Team.

At the beginning we used effects on images to make it

an interesting opening and had no voice over expect the

music in the background.

Afterward it was uploaded o to

YouTube.com after „exporting.‟

In conclusion:

After the whole task of working in a group in creating a five minutes documentary

and double page article plus the radio trailer.

Through out the whole time we had worried about having not enough footage, but

as Hample said ‘If you don’t have the footage, then as far as this documentary is

concerned, it never happened. Work with the visual evidence you do have.’ That is

exactly what we did as a group we worked with what we had and made the best of

it.

We have created the genre of a „documentary‟ that has all the necessary

conventions of footage first hand and second hand alongside with a guiding „voice

of God‟ voice over and with a define message within all these products of

reminding people that they HAVE the ability to choose what is best for themselves.

Hempe state that, ‘the audience will never know how much fun – or how much

trouble – you had in getting the pictures. Nor should they. The audience can be

convinced only with the documentary you show them.’ And I agree with his opinion

the audience really only see what is in the documentary that is edited as we

manipulating them into seeing fast food as unhealthy.