Production

Documentary

This is the final edit of the documentary:

Radio Trailer

Here is the finished Radio Trailer:

Print Advert

This is the final draft of the Print Advert:

Evaluation

Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Opening Titles


Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pgm4b/The_Worlds_Strictest_Parents_Series_2_Update/
The opening titles of a documentary play an extremely important part in the making of the documentary as it reflects what the program is about; even the font style reflects the feel the makers of the documentary are trying to get across. Here the font reflects the theme of the show as it is bold and angular, almost as though it should be used for an army advert; this allows the audience to get a feel for the show. Even the way in which it enters the screen is important as it also reflects the style of the show, in ‘The Worlds Strictest Parents’ the title comes on rapidly and seems to be hitting the screen which again gives a certain feel towards the documentary.




Interview Framing


Conventional framing of a documentary
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtgNXDANC-c

Interviews are framed to either the left or right of the screen in medium close up or close up. The eye-line should be around the top 1/3 of the screen with a mise-en-scene that has a relevance to the topic either of the documentary itself or of the interviewees profession this makes it easier to follow from the audience’s point of view.

The Framing in my documentary:




Graphics


Conventional use of graphics
Link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-day-of-the-kamikaze/4od/player/3012049

Graphics pay a key part in an interview as they inform the audience of who they are listening to and there relevance to the topic. The graphics enter the screen in various ways here I have shown a fade in, whereas my documentary uses a scroll. Conventionally the name of the interviewee is in a larger font than there relevance to the topic or job title but in mine I have only used the name as the interviewees job title is unimportant in the interview and there relevance to the topic is heard during the interview.


Graphics in my documentary



Archive Material



Zoom on Archive Material
Link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/daredevils/4od/player/3009577


Panning on Archive Material
Link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/daredevils/4od/player/3009577

Documentaries throughout have to stay entertaining so as the audience continues to watch which is why they use various filming techniques and video transitions during the still images for the archive material. The two main filming techniques used are zoom and pan as shown above. Below is an example of a transition I have used.


Transition/superimpose

Overall my documentary follows many of the conventions of a typical documentary; I have chosen to do this as to make it recognizable to audiences as being a documentary and also as to make it less confusing to the audience and to keep the programme entertaining.



Question Two

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

I have tried to make the main product and ancillary texts work together through creating coherences throughout all of them:

Voiceover – The voiceover used for both the radio trailer and documentary is done by the same person, this helps to create a link between them, and also it helps make sure that the voiceover is still targeting the same audience.

Clips from Documentary – Also in the radio trailer we chose to use clips from the voxpops and also from the interviews, this creates a strong link between the trailer and documentary as we are including teasers from the documentary to help attract the audience but also to link both.

Scheduling – The scheduling is used on all of the ancillary texts along with the title and slogan of the show. This directly links the texts to the main product, and helps advertise it.

Images – The image used for the print advert links with the documentary as it shows various people with piercings as one face, this is to shock the audience as it produces a weird image which is how the documentary entertains its audience through the shock factor produced by some of the images and stories throughout.



Radio Trailer Script – The radio trailer script includes clips from interviews and the voxpop, this is done to create a strong link between the radio trailer and the documentary itself but also the clips are used to tease the audience. Here is the radio trailer script:

Over the years views on Piercings and Tattoos have changed, from being used to represent anything from crime to wealth and status, to now where they can be seen as fashionable or in the extreme form…
‘Very very ugly’
‘I don’t like it’
‘Strange, very very weird’
‘Funky’
During this documentary we explore the lives of people world known for there full body tattoos or piercings, seeing how people react and why they felt the need to be so extreme in there body modification. Why does anyone feel the need to get a tattoo or piercing?

‘Very very ugly’
‘I don’t like it’
‘Strange, very very weird’
‘Funky’
These are taken directly from the documentary, the reason I have chosen to use these specific clips is because they are short, do not give away too much about the documentary, and leave the audience to imagine what the person they are commenting on looks like which will make them curious and hopefully in turn make them want to watch the documentary.

Why does anyone feel the need to get a tattoo or piercing?

I chose to use this as this question is asked throughout the documentary, also as it is one of the last things the audience hear it will get them thinking about it enough for them to have an interest in the topic and want to find out more.

Here is a list of radio stations that I feel would be appropriate for the radio trailer:

National Radio Stations
Radio 1
Radio 4
Virgin Radio

Local Radio Stations
Juice FM
Rock FM
Heart FM
List of local stations for various local stations and there areas:
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Coventry
BBC London London
BBC Radio Berkshire Reading
BBC Radio Bristol Bristol
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Cambridge
BBC Radio Cornwall Truro
BBC Radio Cumbria Carlisle
BBC Radio Derby Derby
BBC Radio Devon Plymouth
BBC Essex Chelmsford
BBC Radio Gloucestershire Gloucester
BBC Radio Guernsey St Sampson's
BBC Hereford/Worcester Worcester
BBC Radio Humberside Hull
BBC Radio Jersey St.Helier
BBC Radio Kent Maidstone
BBC Radio Lancashire Blackburn
BBC Radio Leeds Leeds
BBC Radio Leicester Leicester
BBC Radio Lincolnshire Lincoln
BBC Radio Manchester Manchester
BBC Radio Merseyside Liverpool
BBC Radio Newcastle Newcastle
BBC Radio Norfolk Norwich
BBC Radio Northampton Northampton
BBC Radio Nottingham Nottingham
BBC Radio Oxford Oxford
BBC Radio Sheffield Sheffield
BBC Radio Shropshire Shrewsbury
BBC Radio Solent Southampton
BBC Somerset Sound Taunton
BBC Radio Stoke Stoke
BBC Radio Suffolk Ipswich
BBC Surrey Guildford
BBC Sussex Brighton
BBC Radio Wiltshire Swindon
BBC Radio York York
BBC Tees Middlesbrough
BBC Three Counties Radio Luton
BBC WM Birmingham
BBC Radio Cymru Cardiff
BBC Radio Scotland Glasgow
BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal Stornoway
BBC Radio Ulster Belfast
BBC Radio Foyle Londonderry
BBC Radio Wales Cardiff
2BR Burnley
3FM Douglas
3TR FM Warminster
3TFM Saltcoats
7 Waves Community Radio Wirral
10Radio Wiveliscombe



Question Three

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my audience feedback I showed a variety of people my documentary, radio trailer and print advert then asked these questions:

Documentary
Question 1. Now you have seen the five minutes would you want to watch the rest of it and why?

“I would watch the rest of it as I have tattoos myself”

“Yes, I think it would be interesting to find out why people go to the extremes of tattooing and piecing”

“Not usually something I would watch but watching the first five minutes did make me want to watch more”


Question 2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the documentary?



“The strengths are that it keeps me interested throughout and I thought the opening titles worked well, I would say the weaknesses are the lack of video footage during the history and also I think there could have been more music”

“I thought the historical information was good also the cutaways used were appropriate as they linked to what the person getting interviewed was talking about or showing us, a weakness I thought is when your talking to the people outside because you can hear the wind quite loudly on some of them”

“A strength would be the graphics on the interview I like how they come on the screen as it is done in the same was as a tattoo also I thought the voxpop was good, a weakness would be that in some parts of the voice over it gets a bit quiet”

Question 3. Do you think that it is appropriate for channel 4?


“I think it would be appropriate for Channel 4, as they have similar types of documentaries on at the moment and also it is something that I would be interested in watching and I regularly watch Channel 4.”

“Yes, Channel 4 shows extreme body programmes”


“Typical type of documentary you would find on channel 4, so yes”

Question 4. What do you think would be an appropriate target audience and why?

“Basically anyone, both old and young people are used in it so it could appeal to anyone”

“Anyone with tattoos or piercings would be interested as it applies to them”

“People with an interest in the subject”

“The history is in depth so also anyone with an interest in history will enjoy watching it”

Question 5. Do you think it looked professional and why?

“Yes, the framing of the interviews was good and also the graphics made it look professional”


“I thought so yeah, the layout of the show was very good and typical of a documentary”


Question 6. How does it compare to a professional documentary?

“I thought it was very good, the graphics used in the interviews were good and cleaver in the way they entered the screen”

“Again the framing of the interviews was the same as a professional documentary although I did feel that it needed more actuality footage”


Radio
Question 1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the radio trailer?


“The music used was good as it was the same music used in the documentary itself so therefore creating coherence between the documentary and the radio trailer which I thought worked well, although sometimes the music did get too loud at parts”

“I thought overall it was good apart from sometimes I could not make out what the voice over was saying, as it was too quiet and the music got a bit loud”

Print
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the print advert?


“Overall I thought the print advert was good as it looked like a typically advert that would be used for channel 4 because of the logo and the colours”

“I like the title of the documentary and I think the image used was cleaver and represented the documentary well although I did notice that the image was a bit rough around the edges”



Question Four

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




Photoshop – Photoshop was used to design the print advert: this included editing images, designing fonts, creating layouts etc. Also photoshop was used to help convert images into JPEG files so that I could upload them to the blog.

Stills Camera – I used the stills camera for images used for the print advert, the profile pictures for the audience feedback and also to take pictures of the filming and editing process.

Tripod – The tripod was used during the voxpop and also for the filming of the still images used during the voxpop to help create smooth shots.

Video Camera – The video camera was used throughout the documentary for the filming process.

Adobe Premier – Adobe Premier was used for the editing for both the documentary itself and the radio trailer, it was are main peice of editing software so as the editing process went on we got better at using the software and used more of its features such as the transitions, cross fades etc.

Voice Recorder - A voice recorder was used during the questionnaire process at the start of the planning and also druing question three of the evaluation to record audience responces.

Making of Ancillary Texts

Radio Trailer

Here is the script for my documentary showing also where I am including clips from the show. The radio advert is also read by the same person doing the voice over throughout the documentary to create coherance.

Radio Trailer Voiceover:
Over the years views on Piercings and Tattoos have changed, from being used to represent anything from crime to wealth and status, to now where they can be seen as fashionable or in the extreme form…
(Clips from documentary)
‘Very very ugly’
‘I don’t like it’
‘Strange, very very weird’
‘Funky’
During this documentary we explore the lives of people world known for there full body tattoos or piercings, seeing how people react and why they felt the need to be so extreme in there body modification. Why does anyone feel the need to get a tattoo or piercing?


Print Advert



This is a rough sketch for the print advert following the codes and conventions of a typical channel 4 advert. This sketch does not show what the main image is fully of nor does it show the background, as at this stage we had not yet planned the background and the image is something that altered throughout the process.

Here are the images we took for our print advert a few of which were not used:


This image was used in the first draft of our print advert but later on we got rid of it as we decided to used someone with a piercing for the mouth. The lighting in both these images was not very good either which is another reason why we got rid of it.


The first image was also used in the first draft of our print advert but we got rid of it as it was at a slight angle and we could not use the other two as in one the lighting is too strong and the last one is blurry.


We were going to use this image for the mouth but again we did not due to it not having a piercing.


This is the image we finally chose to use for the bottom of the face.


This is the image we used for the eyes.


This is the image used for the nose.


The first image here is the image used for the top section of the face, the other image we could not used due to it being at an angle.

Radio Trailers & Print Adverts

Codes & Conventions

Radio Trailer

Title
- The title of the programme will be at the end of the trailer along with the scheduling: time, day and channel. Usually in that order so as the channel is the last thing the audience will hear.

Voiceover
- The voiceover is used to outline the narrative and link all the clips together.
- Can also be used to tease the audience by inculuding certain extracts from the programme.
- Usually poses a question to the audience (genrally the one used throughout the documentary for coherance).
- Is allways relevant to the programme (e.g. the voice will represent the audience of the programme).

Music Bed
- The music bed is a layer or audio that all the other audio is placed on top of.
- Genrally it is music that is either used in the show or relevant to the show.
- Can also include clips from the show such as: archive material, interviews, voxpop etc.



Print Advert

- Includes only one image.
- This image will either be portrait or landscape depending on the size of the advert: portrait for a full page, landscape if it only takes up part of a page.
- The only text used in the advert is the title, slogan and scheduling of the programme.
- The logo for the channel should be the only other thing on the print advert genrally this is placed in the middle of the page to the left or right.

Examples of channel 4 print adverts: http://www.4creative.co.uk/flash/#/print/press_and_poster/factual

Editing

In terms of editing I have been involved through helping firstly with the opening montage, this involved using firstly just simply cutting the clips to equal length and using straight cut between clips, later on when watching this back a few times we found that it was not visually interesting so decided to use a transition instead.



The second piece of footage we edited was the opening title again this changed through the editing process, firstly we again cut clips of equal length using a straight cut between clips but watching it back we noticed that the lighting changed suddenly between clips and the body moved. I tried to remove this problem by firstly making the clips shorter and then putting them in slow motion to make the body seem to move less, but through doing this the lighting problem still remained so we decided to re-film this sequence. Once we had done this, we again edited it using simple cuts between the clips but through learning through my mistake in the first edit I decided to make the clips shorter and slow them down as to make the overall look less jolty.



Next I edited the interview with Josh Gilroy, this involved using cross dissolve on the cutaways to give them a smooth entrance and exit also I changed the sound levels as to stop some of the sound seeming to enter suddenly. I edited this so as the answers would make sense without the audience hearing the question, I found doing this the most challenging part and some answers had to be edited out as they could not be understood alone.



The voxpop was the next footage which needed to be edited, some of the clips when watching them back were inaudible so they were removed. The clips we could use were edited again using cuts as to not distract the audience, we also left three gaps between certain parts of the voxpop as we had shown people three different images and we were going to include these later.



Next we added in these images for the voxpop, these were made to lengths that I thought would give enough time for the voice over to introduce them which at first was just a guess as the script had not at this stage been written but later on we made them the correct length. Again I used simple cuts between clips.

Filming

I have been involved with the filming proccess of our documentary by firstly filming our montage, this involved taking handheld extreme close-ups of peoples tattoos and piercings,
I filmed around four of these clips this helped improve my handheld camerawork and taught me how to frame correctly.

Secondly, I filmed still images for our section on tattoo history this involved using panning and zoom shots as to make them interesting. A few of these shots we could not use due to the camera jolting or the image not being framed right, after a few attempts I got smoother at filming panning and zoom shots.

Thirdly I helped with the filming of our voxpop, the first time we went filming I was asking questions but a few of the clips were unusable due to sound issues or in some cases what the people said, so I refilmed more people, through doing this it taught me how to keep the framing right and how to know when a shot is useable.

I also filmed the interview with Gary, doing this helped me use a tripod and showed me how to frame an interview correctly keeping eyeline match and framing the interviewee to one side of the screen. The first time we filmed this the lighting was not right, so we re filmed this interview but corrected the lighting, doing this has reienforced the importance of lighting and has made me alot more aware of it when filming.

Finally, I helped with the filming for the part of our documentary on piercing history, again this involved using a tripod to film smooth panning & zoom shots of still images, which again helped improve my skills at doing these shot types.


Interview Questions

In preparation for filming the interview we had to plan the questions we were going to ask and preplan also the mise-en-scene and framing. Here is the final draft of the questions:

Piercings: Josh Gilroy

Question One
How many piercings have you got?

Question twowhat piercings have you got and why did you get them?

Question Three
Where you influenced by anyone/celebrities to get a certain piercing?

Question Four
Do you go to school/college or work?

Question Five
If so, are you allowed to have your piercings on show?


Voiceover Script

After filming the documentary we had to think about the voiceover: who would it be? what would they be saying? etc. We started by writing a draft of the script, which we later improved by making sure it would fit in the time frame (we had not wrote too much or too little) and making sure it was appropriate for the audience, and that it linked the footage together well.

This is the final draft of the script:

History of Tattooing:
In the last few years tattoos have become the latest must have fashion accessory making them seem like a modern phenomenon, but this is not the case, tattooing has been round long before the time of Christ. The first real record of tattooing comes from ancient Egyptian wall paintings showing people baring tattoos, this fashion soon travelled around the world. Tattooing has been used for many different purposes and not just for body art; Romans used tattoos to brand criminals and slaves. The Japanese also marked their convicts. A single line on the forehead represented a first-time offender. Two lines marked a repeat offender and three lines spelled ‘dog’. Tattoos faded off the scene for 400 years, between 1200 and1600. When the British explorers returned from voyages with completely tattooed natives, in the late 1600’s and 1700’s the tattoos caused a sensation in London. Samuel O’Reilly patented the first electric tattooing machine. Ironically, for a practice that for a large part of its history has had negative social connotations, it has now become a must have fashion accessory.


History of Piercing:
In recent times body piercing has been closely linked to fashion trends, although the history of piercing can be traced back to the ancient times when the primitive tribes and clans practiced this unique art of body modification. Body piercing has existed since the time immemorial and the practice is believed to be over thousands of years old. The Egyptians were fond of embellishing themselves, however the pharaoh was the only person able to get his naval pierced. Anyone found guilty of attempting to acquire a belly button piercing could face the death penalty. Romans practiced the art of body piercing specific aims in view. Roman centurions pierced their nipples, not for its appeal, but to indicate their vigour and potency. The Aztec and Maya were known for their skills as great warriors and they indulged in septum piercing so that they seemed more ferocious to their enemies.

Voxpop (Introduction):
Elaine Davidson, in the Guinness World Record book she is acknowledged as being the worlds most pierced women. We asked people what they thought about her.

Erik Sprague aka the lizard man, he is known as this due to his full body tattoos and fork tongue used to make him look like a lizard. We asked people what they thought about him and Tom Woodbridge aka the leopard man or Tom Leppard, known for having tattoos replicating the skin of a leopard. We asked people what they thought about him.

Voiceover Recording (History of tattooing/piercing):

Voiceover recording (Voxpop):

Running Order

Running Order

Documentary: Skin Deep
Channel: Channel 4
Scheduling: Wednesday 9pm
Duration: 24 minutes (including advert breaks)

First 5mins

30secs - Montage of people’s tattoos & piercings
20secs - Opening Titles
15secs - Voice over: ‘What do you think about them?’
(A voice over introduces the topic related to results explaining answers)
30secs - Tattoo history
1min 30 secs - Tattoo getting done & interview with tattoo artist
30secs - History of piercing
35secs - Interview with Josh Gilroy 35secs
1min - Voxpop showing images of leopard man, lizard man & Elaine Davidson (Peoples Reactions)