Evaluation: Question 1

1. In what ways did your product use forms and conventions of real media products?

In our documentary as our aim was to emulate and create a genuine documentary we followed every convention we could rather than challenging them. In our radio trailer and print advert we also adhered to conventions.

Framing & Interviews

It took us a few tries (as described) but we got the framing to match those used in real interviews. For our IT Expert interview we placed Jules on the right hand side of the screen while we placed the radio presenter John on the left side. Examples for comparisions are displayed below with links. The convention of interviewee placement allows for either side and we did it to add variety to our camera shots.

Jules:

http://www.videojug.com/interview/the-interview-questions#how-do-i-handle-the-question-what-are-your-greatest-strengths

John:










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

Cutaways

We captured many cutaways, some were placed in interviews while others were used with the voiceover. Editing them in was a time consuming process but well worth it as they improved the documentary. Placing them in interviews prevented jump cuts and made the interview more interesting to watch. We edited all questions out of interviews to make it appear as one single speech rather than an interview/Q&A style as this is a convention of documentaries.

An example of a cutaway to illustrate how technology has changed communication , they are together but both are unspeaking - immersed in different technology.

Voxpops

We began filming voxpops early in our documetary filming but we had problems with framing. We did film some but we decided they wern't necessary in our first five minutes and did not include any in the final edit.

Graphics

We made use of graphics in our documentary to explain who the person we were interviewing was and their relevance to the subject. We placed a slow transition after each so they would slowly fade rather than abruptly vanish from the screen to make it look more like a professional documentary.

-- Graphics on screen

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/ededdneddythemisedventures/video/6130868/ed-edd-n-eddy-the-mis-edventures-developer-interview

Voiceover

For our voiceover we used a woman as we felt this would be more relevent with our tpoic of internet saftety- finding a suitable male voice would of been harder. The voice is of a woman in her twenties with no distinct regional accent but not in receieved pronunciation this makes the tone overall fairly informal but still serious.

Music & Archive Material

YouTube was a main source for our source material, we also filmed many short clips and pans of Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and other social networking site pages. We used Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" as our main title song and documentary title, this links them. Other music we used includes Lily Allen's "Smile" (her most recognisable song) with accompanying music video clip. We went to Youtube for news footage and some social networking sites clips. We have sent an email to the record companies to ask for permission to use the copyright protected music.

Lily Allen "Smile" Music Video

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xg06k_lily-allen-smile_music

Editing + Screenshots

We began editing before we got all our filming done. We started in we used Adobe Premier Pro to edit. It was difficult software to master, as a group we each took turns being the manual editor with each contributing ideas and advice. I edited a few times solo including the footage we captured of the general public in Liscard. Capturing footage could be timely as it was hard to time it right at first but we've all seen our editing skills improve over the last few weeks. Certain parts such as the Virtual Insanity? title sequence took a long time (eg. adding in sound effects). Cutaways took a while to insert as we endeavored to make them relevent and effective. We had a few differences about creative decisions but always compromised in the end. Editing has felt in many ways easier than the filming as its less of a start from scratch, once you upload footage you have something to build on and create with.

Filming

- [filming the IT Expert interview]

The filming for our documnentary was difficult to complete. An interview of an IT expert took three seperate times to complete, the first time the framing was wrong (the camera was palced too far out of the door), the second time we had the same problem but finally we got it perfect. It taught us that framing is important and that patience is needed as it can be very time consuming setting up tripods and shot angles. Individually I took a camera home and filmed various stock footage from online, pans from websites and filmed typing. On one group session in Liscard, the others had to leave early so I stayed on for an extra half hour filming members of the public on their phones and using the internet. We captured interviews of a local band as well and a radio dj, the band were nervous so this made it hard to film but the dj was natural before the camera so didn't need any shot retakes and this was helpful. We all individually captured any stock footage or sources (eg. newspaper articles) we thought would be useful. The IT expert was the first interview we filmed so our inexpereince and lack of technique was probably what caused the problems, early voxpops also were unusable most often due to poor framing (not on eye-level) and the lighting being too dark. At one point all our filming we had captured (about a minute and a halfs worth) was deemed unusable. This was frustrating but made us determined to improve our camera skills. As a group we have had many creative disputes but these have improved with time, all of us have seen a great increase in our camera skills.

Evidence of Filming & Log Sheet & Storyboard

Interview Questions with Pupils & Parents

Pupil Questions

1. What social networking sites do you use and why?
2. How old were you when you first set up an account?
3. Have you openly got all your personal details listed?
4. Do you know everyone in person that you're talking to online?
5. Whats your favourite thing to do on the site?
6. What do you like most about using social network sites?

Parent Questions
1. How do you feel when you read articles about online bullying and does it make you think about your own children and their online safety?
2. How many computers have you got at home?
3. Did you help your child set up their social network pages and how old were they when they did?
4. What would you do if you found out your child was being bullied online?
5. Do you think schools do enough to help the problem?

Interview With Jules (ICT Expert) Questions

Interview with Jules

1. What do you consider are the dangers of the internet for young people?
2. Should there be an age limit for social network sites
3. Have you came across any incidents of students using the internet wrongfully?
4. What are the procedures behind filters and the main reasons for any paticular sites being blocked?
5. Do you think social networking sites are changing the way young people communicate?

Running Order

Montage of newspaper articles concerning social network sites
- Holly Grogan article
- Fired over Facebook article
- Online pages
- Internet addiction
[15 secs]

Opening Titles
"Virtual Insanity"
(Audio: Cliff Richard song "It's Funny Why We Don't Talk Anymore")
[15 secs]

Clip of interview with parents about Holly Grgan article filmed at home in own environment [mise-en-scene]
[30 secs]

Voiceover introduce the topic over clips of students texting, using
computers and phones around school.
[40 secs]

Interview with Jules (school ICT technician/expert) about her views on negative aspects of internet use eg. online bullying
[1 min]

Voxpops of students about what they consider their favourite internet uses
[10 secs]

Montage of Myspace, news page Lily Allen's page and video, celebrity Twitter pages
[10 secs]

Lily Allens career - voice over, archive footage, clips "Smile" music video and Myspace screenshots.
[1 min]

Reconstruction , voice over, statistics, data pans across young girl on computer
[1 min]

Clip of "How To Catch a Paedo" which was shown on ITV about paedos getting caught by police
[30 secs]

Voiceover introducing story of women recently in the news - shot of nursery where they worked and non-diagetic sound of children playing and laughing
[30 secs]

Still image of her slowly zooms voiceover adds more details
[30 secs]

Clip of interview with parents of abused child in nursery case
[1 min]

Voiceover explaining the creation and history of Facebook
[1 min]

Interview with one of the creators of Facebook about their laws and safety policies
[1 min]

Voiceover explaining the relation between Myspace and the music industry with still images of pages
[1 min]

Shot of people in the street shopping (a range of age and genders - general public) voiceove explains a survey carried out on whether they prefer Facebook, Bebo or Myspace and reveals results
[20 secs]

Voiceover explains celebrities use of Twitter (eg. Jordan)
Archive of Twitter pages and intrview with Katie Price about her Twitte use is available to public and young fans (whethe she sets a good example)
Information about influence of internet over mass media eg. the leak of Michael Jacksons death through the internet e.g. celebs on Twitter

shot of article of Holly Grogan who committed suicide over online bullying [10 s]

zoom onto Holly Grogan’s face, voice over explaining the story behind her suicide [1 min]

interview with parents of Holly Grogan [2 min]

interview with Holly’s school teacher [2 min]

home footage of Holly Grogan before death [50 secs]

interview with policeman about dealing with online bullying [1 min]

cuts between parents/ teacher interviews and the article to show

the overall conclusion about the dangers of using the internet and
the effects in which it has – ending credits [2 min]

[90 secs]