Documentary

How did you use technology: construction, Research, planning, evaluation ?

These are mood boards that show the technologies i used throughout the tasks

During the research process I used the internet to find out information for secondary research and also for primary research to find out phone numbers of local shops to ask if we could film in their shops. I therefore also used the technology of a phone to contact the different shops. I used a television to watch other documentaries to find out the codes and conventions of documentaries. I also used a camera to film and take pictures of people answering the questionnaire we produced. I also used this blog during the research process to show the work I produced.

During the construction process I used many forms of technology such as different computer programmes such as Photoshop, to create the print advert, Adobe Premier, to create the actual documentary and Adobe Audition to create the radio advert. I continued to use my blog to show the work I produced. We used a microphone during our interviews to get the best possible sound quality for the documentary. We also used a camera to record some of the footage for the documentaryas well as the internet to get archive footage. A camera was used to take pictures of the group completing certain tasks such as filming different shots. We also used Windows movie maker to change pictures to make them look like old film. To record the voice over and radio advert we used radio suite to get the best possiable sound quality.

During the evaluation process I used Photoshop to create these mood boards. A television was used so that the test audience could watch the documentary and give the group feedback and then they were recorded using a voice recorder and a camera to collect their feedback. I also used this blog to show the work I produced.

All of these technologies helped me to produce the documentary and other tasks, however some were more essential that others such as the camera was essential to get the footage for the documentary however the microphones were not necessarily essential however improved the overall quality of the documentary and created a professional aspect to the documentary. A computer was also essential in creating this documentary as editing needs to be done on a computer and lots of the research we did was on a computer and this blog was also completed using a computer. New technologies have made producing this documentary, and other documentaries, much easier with the help of lighter equipment which makes filming easier and footage can be collected easier. New technologies have also helped with the editing process as all of our editing was done on a computer in one programme.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback ?

For our audience feedback we asked a number of people the following quesitions:

Would you want to watch the whole documentary?

Can you tell that the adverts are for the documentary?

Do you think they scheduling for the doc is the right time and channel?

How do you think this documentary compares to a professional doc?

Do you think the voice over used is appropriate?

What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses about the product?

This video shows some of the responses to the questions we asked

From the audience feedback I have collected I have come to the following conclusions:

• That people would want to watch the rest of the documentary which connotes that the first 5 minutes were interesting enough to make people want to watch more.
• There was good coherence created between the print advert, radio advert and documentary with people noticing the same voice over and questions in all three products. This also signifies that the adverts are doing what they are supposed to do in advertising the documentary.
• The documentary is to a good standard as people thought it could be a professional documentary.
• The voice over used is appropriate and helps move the documentary on, this voice over is also clear and understandable.
• The scheduling of the documentary was appropriate for most people as people like watching BBC documentaries and watch television at the time the documentary was scheduled for.
• If we made the documentary again, from the audience feedback, some of the footage could be improved and the cutaways could be more relevant to the interviews and one of the grahics is spelt wrong as we put 'Athesist' and it is spelt 'Atheist'.

Producing this audience feedback has shown me the importance of audience feedback to media organisations and has shown me how much of an impact a test audience can have and how a product can be improved from it.

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

• • The same three questions are used on all three products ‘What does Christmas mean to you? Is it all about God, spending time with your family? Or is it all about the gifts?’
  
  This picture shows the print advert we produced and the three questions on the christmas tree
  
  
  This is a clip of the radio advert we produced which includes the three questions
  
  
  
  This is a clip from our documentary which includes the three questions
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The scheduling of the programme and adverts also create coherence across the three products as they are scheduled to appeal to the target audience and therefore the radio advert would appear on BBC radio 1 as the target audience is 16 – 24 year old which has the same target age group as the documentary.
  
  The same voice over is used for the documentary and radio advert to create a familiarity and so when the audience watch the documentary they will be able to recognise something from the advert. We used the technique of a 'voice of god' voice over as it follows the codes and conventions of many documentaries.
  
  
• We have used a tag line in both adverts saying 'the truth behind the modern Christmas' which also combines the three products. This helps the audeince see that the adverts are for the same product and are threrfore more likly to watch the product if they hear about it more.
• We have also used some of the same music in the documentary as in the radio advert such as the 'money money money' clip and the instrumental sound under the voice over in the radio and the beginning of the documentary. Which helps the audience identify that the advert they saw is for the documentary that they are watching.

The print advert and radio advert were produced to advertise the documentary.


The radio advert would mostly be played on BBC radio 1 as that station has the same target audeince as the documentary .


The print advert was produced landscape so it could therefore be published in newspapers, such as the first image below advertising the shop 'Magnet' and also on a billboards such as the billboard below advertising the programme 'Lost'.

image taken from the Daily Mirror



image found at http://www.docarzt.com/


The newspapers that the print advert would be published in are the following:

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

These pictures show how the documentary we produced follows the codes and conventions of documentaries with a screen grab from our documentary and a real documentary found on youtube.

For our documentary we chose to produce a explository documentary and therefore our documentary contains a 'voice of god' narrator which anchors the meaning of the images and juxtaposed images and sounds.

The first two screen grabs are connoting the code and convention of documentaries framing a shot a certain way so that the interviewee is one one side of the screen and so that they are not looking directly at the camera and are looking off screen to the person asking the questions. The first pictire is a sceen grab from our doumentary and the second is a clip from a Westlife documentary found on youtube. These two screen grabs also signify the codes and conventions of documentaries with the mise en scene used to reflect the interviewees job or position in the documentary such as in the clip from the documentary we made the Vicar is dressed like a Vicar and there are religious images in the background and in the Westlife screen grab the mise en scene is that of a dressing room . The link to the youtube video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLcsdDuO9U

The next two images show graphics on screen which is a code and convention of documentaries and signifys to the audience who the person being interviewed is. The first one is a sceen grab from our documentary and the other is a clip from one found on youtube. The graphics are used in documentaries to connote to the audience who the person on screen is and their significance to the documentary. The link to the youtube video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLUGMWrd-AM

This is a copy of all of our voice-over in which we used a 'voice of god' voice-over which is used im many documentaries such as the youtube link below which also uses a 'voice of god' narrator. We chose to use this type of voice over to add a proffesional element to the documentary and to help anchour the meaning of the images.

Music is also important in a documentary as it helps move the documentary on and can help break the documentary up. The first video is a clip from our documentary and the music in the clip helps break the documentary up and keeps the documentary moving. The second video is a clip from a real documentary called 'Naked Nashville' and from 3.32 to 3.50 music is used to break up two interviews.

Radio Advert

Print advert

Copyright Emails

Dear Epic Records
I am writing to ask for your permission to use two of your records in our A Level Media Coursework. The songs we would like to use are called Last Christmas by Wham! and Wonderful Dream by Melanie Thornton.
We are creating a documentary about the commercialisation of Christmas and we require these records to produce it.

Yours sincerely, Liander McMinn, Sarah Harte and Becky Jarvis
Weatherhead High School, Media Arts College


Dear Decca Records
I am writing to ask for your permission to use one of your records in our A Level Media Coursework. The song we would like to use is Money Money Money off the Mamma Mia sound track.
We are creating a documentary about the commercialisation of Christmas and we require this record to produce it.

Yours sincerely, Liander McMinn, Sarah Harte and Becky Jarvis from Weatherhead High School, Media Arts College



Dear Mercury Nashville Records

I am writing to ask for your permission to use one of your records in our A Level Media Coursework. The song we would like to use is the instrumental track from Julianne Hough’s Sounds of the Season Holiday Collection.
We are creating a documentary about the commercialisation of Christmas and we require this record to produce it.

Yours sincerely, Liander McMinn, Sarah Harte and Becky Jarvis
Weatherhead High School, Media Arts College




Dear Big Machine Records

I am writing to ask for your permission to use one of your records in our A Level Media Coursework. The song we would like to use is called Christmas Must Be Something More by Taylor Swift.
We are creating a documentary about the commercialisation of Christmas and we require this record to produce it.

Yours sincerely, Liander McMinn, Sarah Harte and Becky Jarvis
Weatherhead High School, Media Arts College

Edit Decision list

Codes and Conventions of adverts

 Print Advert

• There is usually one main image to catch the attention of the audience.
• The title of the programme and the channel that it is on in bold and the name of the programme is in a bigger front size.
• There is only two or three colours used becasue of the cost.
• The name of the programme has a hook line

 Radio Advert

• Extracts from the programme are usually used
• They are produced so that it can be used in different forms of media
• There is a music bed under speech and other parts of the advert
• The title of the programme is mentioned along with the scheduling of the programme
• Well known presenters are used or presenter in the docuentary
• Voiceover askes questions that could be answered in the documentary and uses an enigma code
• The outline of the documentary is established in the voiceover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tape Log Sheets

Edit Decision list

1. Cutaways of Cards (Card Factory)
2. Customer being served (Card Factory)
3. Cutaway of sweets (B&M)
4. The Snowman Irn Bru advert
5. Opening sequence
6. Jemma cutaway
7. Jemma;s interview with Wham in the background
8. Rahima and Ema interview
9. Cutaway of toys
10. Back to interview
11. Elderly interview
12. Shot of toys -music in background
13. Card Factory
14. B&M long shot
15. Wilkinsons- Shot of swees and deconrations
16. B&M interview with manager
17. Cutaway of shop
18. Interview with vicar

Secondary research

The secondary data we used in our doucmentary was clips from films such as The Snowman and White Christmas. We also got clips from other films that we did not use, these films were;
Elf
The Grinch
A Christmas Carol

We also used a clip of the music video for Last Christmas.

We researched into lots of different christmas films such as

• Elf - 2003
• Miracle on 34th Street – 1994
• The Grinch – 2000
• Nightmare Before Christmas – 1993
• Christmas Carol – 1984
• The Muppet Christmas Carol – 1992
• Scrooge – 1951
• Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol – 1962

other research we did was into statistics and facts about christmas such as the following:

Christmas is back in the US shops

Wal-Mart and Macy’s have both announced that its customers would be wished “Merry Christmas” and there would be Christmas-themed window decorations following the outcry at the banning of Christmas greetings and the removal of any specific references to Christmas of previous years.
Reported in the Church of England Newspaper, 24 November 2006

No room at the card shop?

A survey by the Daily Mail of 5,500 cards in High Street shops, including WH Smith, Clinton Cards and Hallmark, found only 67 with pictures of the Bible story. Traditional nativity scenes appear on only one in 100. Hundreds avoided any images linked to Christmas at all, including fir trees, baubles, snowmen or Santa Claus and inside many wished either Seasons Greetings, or had no message inside at all.
Reported in the Daily Mail 9 December 2006

The Modern Celebration of Christmas

The Stamp of approval

Despite the rise in email and texting, Royal Mail say more Christmas stamps are being sold than ever before. Following the secular Santa of 2006 and the expressions of regret from the Church of England and others, Royal Mail have announced they plan to alternate between Christian and secular themes.
Reported in the Church of England Newspaper 10 November 2006

Presents Galore!

The average child in Britain will open 18 presents on Christmas morning, worth £330 according to a survey by Children’s Mutual, a leading Child Trust Fund provider.

· Of the presents received, one in 10 will be broken by the New Year, only 40% will make it to March and just a quarter will be intact by next Christmas.

· In total around 46 million toys, worth £870m will be thrown away.

Reported in the Daily Mirror, 6 December 2006

Online Shopping

An estimated £180m was spent on December 4th last year, on what was predicted to be the busiest day of Internet shopping. Over the Christmas period in 2006 the total online was estimated to reach £7bn.
Reported in the Daily Telegraph, 5 December 2006

Giving to Charity at Christmas

More than a third of those who were planning to donate money to charity last year, said they were planning to do so through a church or other place of worship. A survey of 1007 adults for World Emergency Relief found that:

· 16% said they would be giving because it was the Christian thing to do at Christmas

· Nearly one-third said they would be giving directly to a church or faith-based charity.

· Around 35% planned to support charities because Christmas is too materialistic and they wanted to help someone less fortunate than themselves.

· People in Wales and the South West were most likely to give through a church collection (44%), and donors aged 65 and over were most likely to give to church or faith-based charities (39%).
Reported in the Church Times 15 December 2006

What Children think of Christmas

A poll for the BBC children’s TV programme Newsround found that of those surveyed:

· 44% of 7-11 year-olds regarded Christmas day as a celebration of the birth of Jesus - although in Northern Ireland the figure rose to 71%.

· Although 89% were excited, and 79% were happy about the holiday period, one in six said they felt sad, nervous or left out at Christmas.

· Perhaps not so surprisingly, one in four (24%) believed the season was about giving, rather than receiving, presents.

· Giving clearly matters, however, with almost two-thirds (63%) saving their pocket money to buy presents, adding up to an average piggy-bank of £34. 33% nationally and 45% in Scotland managed to save more than £50.

Newsround presenter Ellie Crisell said; ‘Christmas is exciting for children but it can also be stressful. They worry about their families getting along, about buying the right present and, amid the festivities, feeling alone.’
Reported in the Daily Mail 19 December 2006

(http://www.eauk.org/resources/info/statistics/christmasstats07.cfm)

Christmas is the most significant trading period of the year for retailers in the UK, with approximately 40% – 60% of many larger retailers turnover being made between November and January – ‘the Golden Triangle’.

Total spending in December 2004 was £31 billion, of which £14 billion was spent in the two weeks leading up to Christmas and £5 billion in the week after Christmas. Of the £31 billion, £10 billion was specifically for Christmas purchases.

On average, each person will spend £330 on Christmas gifts.

On average, each household will spend approximately:

£160 on food and drink

£660 on gifts

£20 cards and postage

£25 decorations

£20 crackers

£35 Christmas trees.

This year we will spend more than £1.2 billion on Christmas trees, with between 34 - 36 million trees produced to cope with demand.

We will send an estimated 1.7 billion Christmas cards to friends and family.

Christmas wrapping paper sold in the UK equates to 83 sq km, which is enough to cover 33 Hyde Parks.

Christmas costs £920 for the day. Based on a 12-hour day this works out at £1.28 per minute, and £76.66 per hour.

The average Christmas lunch costs £12 per head (excluding alcohol).

We will consume 30 million turkeys this Christmas with a market value of £305 million.

On average, children will receive gifts worth more than £250.

Commenting on Christmas 2005, BRC Director General, Kevin Hawkins, says:

“When it comes to Christmas 2005, we are again seeing that many traditional presents such as clothing, jewellery, CDs and books are on people’s gift list. However, technology items are on the ‘must have’ lists with MP3 players such as the new Nano and video i-Pod proving very difficult to find on store shelves due to the high level of demand. Equally popular are the new gaming machines with people queuing to purchase PSPs and X-Boxes.

“While 2005 has been a tough year for many retailers and consumers have benefited from the significant discounts available on the high street, our advice to consumers is not to leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute in the hope of significant discounts. Retailers have been monitoring stock levels closely over the last few months and if people do leave shopping until the last minute they may find that variety is limited.”

(http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/brc-christmas-facts-and-figures-$15112130.htm)

Editing

During the editing process i have learnt how to use adobe premier properly as i had only touched on how to use it before. We layed lots of different sounds such as music and interviews played over the top. We have mostly used straight cuts between each shot however we have used some fades between shot to show the connections.

Liander and I spent lots of our free lessons editing and at first we had problems with the audio levels and getting the music the right sound so that interviews could still be heard over the top of the music. After we had figured out how to edit the sound levels on different parts of the music our next problem with the sound was getting all the sound at the same level all throughout the documentary which was hard because we had recorded in different places where the sound levels were different.

I collected most of the archive footage from the internet that we used in our documentary. We thought it was important to have archive footage, especially during an interview with elderly people to illustrate what they were saying. We also used a clip of the music video for Wham! - Last Christmas because it illustrates what someone else in the documentary says however the quality of this video was not good enough and therefore we had to find some different cutaways.

Here are some screen grabs of our editing work

                                      

Filming

When our group filmed we filmed in different locations, to get lots of our cutaways we went to BM, Wilkinson, Card Factory and a local card shop. 

We filmed 8 different interviews to use in our documentary. We filmed an interview with the manager of B&M. We interviewed him about how the shops profits increase and to what extent they increase. We also interviewed some residents from a local care home about how Christmas has changed over the years they have been alive. We also interviewed a vicar and some people who have a different religion and don't celebrate Christmas. Another interview we filmed was an interview with someone who celebrates Christmas but does not believe in god. We also interviewed people who worked in card shops and asked them questions about when stock arrives and the profits that are made over Christmas.  






When we first went to film some of our cutaways in B&M the tripod did not work properly and we therefore had to film alot of our shots without a tripod and therefore the shots did not look right and we had to re do all the cutaway's from there. We would have also liked to film panning shots moving the tripod however this was no possiable and we therefore had to film panning shots just moving the camera on the tripod. 


When we interviewed a worker in Card Factory we did not get very good answer's to the questions we asked and could therefore not use any of the interview, however we were able to use a short part of it in the beginning before the opening credits. 


When Liander and I went to re film cutaways we went into Wilkinson's and asked if it would be ok to film in their shop and they said we could and therefore we have more variety in the shops we filmed in.


This is a picture of the group filming some vox pops however we did not use this vox pop in the final edit 

Primary research

Interview with liscard B & M store manager

Interview with card shop worker

Filming in various shops in liscard such as B &M, Wilkinson’s, card factory

Interviews wit h someone who does not believe in god but celebrates Christmas, people who don’t celebrate Christmas, someone who celebrates Christmas for god, elderly people and how Christmas has changed over the years they have been alive.

Interview storyboards

Opening credits storyboard

Pictures of group working

Some draft question for voxpops

1. Do you celebrate Christmas?

2. Do you believe in god?

3. Why you think the commercialisation of Christmas is an important issue?

4. What song do you mostly associate with Christmas?

Draft questions for a retail manager

1. Do you think the commercialisation of Christmas is and important issue?

2. If yes, why do you think this?

3. Do you think the commercialisation has changed over the years?

4. How do you celebrate Christmas?

5. What does Christmas mean to you?

6. Do you see a significant increase in sales around the Christmas time?

7. What time of year does Christmas stock come in?

8. How much do your profits increase during the Christmas season?

Draft questions For a Vicar

1. Do you think the commercialisation of Christmas is an important issue?

2. Do you think it has changed over the years?

3. What does Christmas mean to you?

4. How do you celebrate Christmas?

5. What does Christmas mean to your congregation?

6. Do you think religion is being left out at Christmas?

7. If this is true, why do you think that people celebrate Christmas?

8. Do you think more people should help the less fortunate at Christmas?

9. Do you buy presents?

Running Order

Montage of different shop, showing Christmas Trees, presents, cards etc with Christmas music. Opening title with more Christmas music in the background.	20 seconds
Interview with someone who celebrates Christmas though but does not believe in god	1 minute
Interview with someone from a different religion and what Christmas means to them	40 seconds
Interview with elderly people about how Christmas has changed over the years.	1 minute 30 seconds
Montage of shop images.	40 seconds
Interview of Manager of B&M	30 seconds
Interview with Mr Swindell (Vicar): He celebrates Christmas because of God.	40 seconds
How homeless or poor people deal with Christmas	30 seconds
Interview with Shelter representative	40 seconds
Interview with Shelter	30 seconds
Queens Speech-what significance does it connote	30 seconds
Recycling Presents	40 seconds
Film of a school Nativity play with voiceover	1 minute
People who work over Christmas: Service Stations, Police, Fire Brigades, Hospitals, Chefs, waiter etc: Do they mind it?	1 minute
Filming of a traditional family at Christmas	1 minute
Interview with the Pope, Cardinal, Chief Rabbi	40 seconds
Traditional Christmas dinner	30 seconds
TV Schedule-40’s Top of the Pops.	1 minute
How people abroad celebrate Christmas	1 minute
Children and Parents opinions on Christmas	50 seconds
Why people get stressed by Christmas	1 minute
How shops sales sore over Christmas	50 seconds
How people living on their own deal with Christmas	40 seconds
The Shoe Box Appeal	1 minute
The History of Christmas	1 minute 30 seconds
Christmas Catalogues that help people with money troubles over Christmas: e.g. Park	40 seconds
How Christmas recipe’s bring families together	30 seconds
Last minute shopper vs. careful planner	30 seconds
How Christmas has changed due to America? (Film clips)	1 minute 30 seconds
Voxpop on American streets	1 minute
People celebrating and getting too drunk during the festive season	1 minute
Statistics about how the amount of money people spent throughout the Christmas period has increased	40 seconds
Has the improvement in technology increased the price of gifts?	30 seconds
How people in different countries who cant afford Christmas to show how lucky people are	40 seconds