1. In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Due to our film being a documentary we were able to film everything ‘as and when’ it happened, so there was no continuity slip ups. On each day of filming there was a different training activity for us to get involved in and shoot for example: day 1 we shot the fire fighters testing the hoses; day 2 we shot the RTC engine in action with the mechanical cage located on the back; and day 3 we shot them dismantling a car to release a trapped casualty along with the interviews with Matthew Barrell and Phil O’Colloell. Shooting what we needed on each day, we avoided continuity errors. While editing we used a few establishing shots to distinguish that the film was ‘moving on’, obeyed the 180 rule and used a range on different shots during the sequence. We also used a lot of match on action, especially when either the narrator or the ‘characters’ talk about the equipment and when they are on the job.
A documentary it there to entertain and educate: our film follows the conventions of a documentary. It informs the audience about the fire service: how they feel about their jobs, the cots they have had to make in their departments. Like any documentary we asked questions that allowed the fire fighters to tell us their story. It follows the regular conventions and structure of documentaries. It could be compared to the recent documentary Coppers shown on Channel 4.
Our film does not display any parody or abnormality from the genre we worked with. It fulfils the nature of the documentary. However while filming we acquired footage that was unsuitable for the film due to the levels of laughter within them. At the beginning of our film you see an engine come into the ‘yard’, returning from a call out: in this shot you see one of the fire fighters waving at the camera from within the engine. We deliberately placed this shot in our film to give it an upbeat feel. We felt that it was unnecessary to challenge the conventions of genre as it would not reflect our aims and confuse the audience into what we were trying to portray to them. I believe that our film outlines the stereotypes the occupation as it mainly features male characters. Due to the tasks the job entails: lifting heavy equipment, patience and physical endurance of the occupation, I believe that the job is aimed at the gender it is intended for.
The use of graphic convention in which we have used was to try and create pleasure for the audience: although that within this we created an underlining convention of educating the audience in the subject in question. We did this thoroughly throughout the film using the voice over to describe the fire fighters actions and equipment they were using, where it’s stored in the engine and how it is used: how the equipment has changed over time, how it has been developed to suit the jobs that are attending, how the adaptations have increased their jobs easier and the more beneficial they are for releasing the casualty from the danger they are in. We have also provide the audience pleasure with a sense of personal identity: how the audience can relate to the characters on screen; if they are in the same occupation, know someone who is, whether they are looking in to going into the occupation or if their job is similar e.g. other emergency services, lifeguards etc. Even if the audience are unable to identify themselves with the fire fighters, I believe that they can be used as a role model for the audience: going out every day and risking their lives for another. Their behaviour would provide a good canvas for others to follow, or the ‘copycat’ theory, promoting a good work ethic and in the most serious circumstances: injecting something positive into the media and therefore into the audience (hypodermic theory).
Due to the bad press about the fire service over recent months: the cuts, protests etc, we wanted to distract the audience for the negative connotations that people may have of them and show the audience about what really happens and what they actually do instead of ‘sitting about’ and ‘chilling’, showing them that they are constantly training and are doing plenty of community service: going into schools and explaining about fires, what happens and what to do in the event of a fire etc. In the image of my poster (see poster), is simple: an engine and the words ‘find out more’. I did it like this because not many people know that much about the fire service and what they actually do within their community, therefore by portraying my poster like that, the audience may be intrigued into what it is about, what it includes and what may happen if they watch.
Monday 9 May 2011
Evaluation: Question 2
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
In our main production we wanted to create an in depth understanding of the ‘true colours’/ reality of the dangers that come with working within the fire service industry. In recent months prior to our film, there was a lot of negative media towards the fire service due to the pays cuts, which resulted in the famous fire strikes. This then negative press lead to the general public have harsh and negative feelings/ emotions toward their local fire service. If our film were to be shown on Channel 4 as it was intended, it would raise the awareness of the job role of the fire fighter and the expectations of not only their seniors, but of themselves and their public. It would’ve also explained to the public the reasons as to why they initiated the strike, we found out in depth detail about the fire service while filming and wanted to express this to the public. The role of a fire fighter is not what the media anticipate it as (sitting around ‘wasting’ taxpayers money), but consists of high risks, danger and high levels of training, all on a day to day basis. I feel that our aims are reflected in both my own and the group’s media products: posters and radio trailer.
My poster reflects this as it is a simple shot of the fire engines lined up with a dark tint to reflect the dark side to the job role; towards the right hand of the page, there are 3 simple words ‘Find out more’, this indicated to the public that they don’t know much, if not anything at all about their local fire service and what they actually do for them and their community. I believe that the poster would be an effect advertising technique for our film as it highlights to the public that they actually don’t know much about their fire service; all they know is that they are there in case of a fire or the occasional car crash, and they are unaware of the lengths (constant training, community service, school tours ect) they, the fire fighters, go through to ensure that the public they are protecting are as safe as can be and that they are aware of the dangers and risks within their home.
The radio trailer we produced is also a sample of our creativity and would also be an effective selling point towards the advertising and intrigue of our film. By contrasting different sounds beneath the voices of the narrator and the fire fighters we were able to create a sense of tension within the radio trailer, to excite and intrigue the audience. This would then create curiosity within the audience and intrigue them into watching it as they would get the impression from the radio trailer that they need to find out. We also added a quote in from an interview with Nigel Bailey (Crew Manager), when he started in the force, on the job, a few week into it and he had to and his crew had to rescue dead bodies from a collapsed building, how he felt ect, this would help the audience empathise and connect with characters, realising that their job is difficult, especially when dealing with death and destruction like they do on a day to day basis.
In comparison to real advertising products, such as radio advertisement for the 5th series of Doctor Who on BBC channels, which also use a variety of sound that intrigue and excite the audience. From the beginning of the trailer, it engages the audience and captures their attention with the backing track of the trailer, while playing extracts from the included episodes to offer the audience a ‘taster’ of what is to come, if they were to tune into the programme. It is effective as it gives a snippet of the series and leaves the rest up to the audiences imagination for them to ‘fill in the blanks’ and conjure up some wild and whacky stories, making them tune in to see if their predictions are correct, this is evidence and backs up Richard Dyers theory of entertainment and the hypodermic theory by injecting an idea into the audience. The use of the different sounds within the trailer effects the audience due to the tension created from collaborating certain sounds and tones, create an uneasy atmosphere as well as empathy with the characters involved in the sequence/ trailer that the audience can relate to in one way or another. We tried to recreate this effect in our trailer: we tried allow the audience to empathise with the characters while at the same time a feeling of uneasiness due to their lack of knowledge and understanding of the subject in question, in this case the fire service.
Although, unlike the Doctor Who trailer, we have not included background music in our radio trailer. It would have been applicable or beneficial for our production/ radio trailer as it would have over ridden the sound of the characters voices within the trailer, therefore completely defacing the point as to which we were trying to get across to our listening audience.
The documentary poster about Michael Jackson’s last tour is quite truly, in my opinion, iconic. I believe this because in the centre of it is Michael in one of his iconic, signature poses, bursting with colour and light. This reflects Michael and his life within the music business. Like my poster, this also is very simple with 3 large words, in the complete focus of the poster ‘This is it’, referring to his death and the enjoyment he got out of everything he involved during his life. This relates to our film because, on some level they are both about death: the death of Michael, and the death of the victims the fire fighters attempt to rescue, although they are neither centred on the subject. They are both upbeat and enlightening but with an undercut of a dark side within.
In our main production we wanted to create an in depth understanding of the ‘true colours’/ reality of the dangers that come with working within the fire service industry. In recent months prior to our film, there was a lot of negative media towards the fire service due to the pays cuts, which resulted in the famous fire strikes. This then negative press lead to the general public have harsh and negative feelings/ emotions toward their local fire service. If our film were to be shown on Channel 4 as it was intended, it would raise the awareness of the job role of the fire fighter and the expectations of not only their seniors, but of themselves and their public. It would’ve also explained to the public the reasons as to why they initiated the strike, we found out in depth detail about the fire service while filming and wanted to express this to the public. The role of a fire fighter is not what the media anticipate it as (sitting around ‘wasting’ taxpayers money), but consists of high risks, danger and high levels of training, all on a day to day basis. I feel that our aims are reflected in both my own and the group’s media products: posters and radio trailer.
My poster reflects this as it is a simple shot of the fire engines lined up with a dark tint to reflect the dark side to the job role; towards the right hand of the page, there are 3 simple words ‘Find out more’, this indicated to the public that they don’t know much, if not anything at all about their local fire service and what they actually do for them and their community. I believe that the poster would be an effect advertising technique for our film as it highlights to the public that they actually don’t know much about their fire service; all they know is that they are there in case of a fire or the occasional car crash, and they are unaware of the lengths (constant training, community service, school tours ect) they, the fire fighters, go through to ensure that the public they are protecting are as safe as can be and that they are aware of the dangers and risks within their home.
The radio trailer we produced is also a sample of our creativity and would also be an effective selling point towards the advertising and intrigue of our film. By contrasting different sounds beneath the voices of the narrator and the fire fighters we were able to create a sense of tension within the radio trailer, to excite and intrigue the audience. This would then create curiosity within the audience and intrigue them into watching it as they would get the impression from the radio trailer that they need to find out. We also added a quote in from an interview with Nigel Bailey (Crew Manager), when he started in the force, on the job, a few week into it and he had to and his crew had to rescue dead bodies from a collapsed building, how he felt ect, this would help the audience empathise and connect with characters, realising that their job is difficult, especially when dealing with death and destruction like they do on a day to day basis.
In comparison to real advertising products, such as radio advertisement for the 5th series of Doctor Who on BBC channels, which also use a variety of sound that intrigue and excite the audience. From the beginning of the trailer, it engages the audience and captures their attention with the backing track of the trailer, while playing extracts from the included episodes to offer the audience a ‘taster’ of what is to come, if they were to tune into the programme. It is effective as it gives a snippet of the series and leaves the rest up to the audiences imagination for them to ‘fill in the blanks’ and conjure up some wild and whacky stories, making them tune in to see if their predictions are correct, this is evidence and backs up Richard Dyers theory of entertainment and the hypodermic theory by injecting an idea into the audience. The use of the different sounds within the trailer effects the audience due to the tension created from collaborating certain sounds and tones, create an uneasy atmosphere as well as empathy with the characters involved in the sequence/ trailer that the audience can relate to in one way or another. We tried to recreate this effect in our trailer: we tried allow the audience to empathise with the characters while at the same time a feeling of uneasiness due to their lack of knowledge and understanding of the subject in question, in this case the fire service.
Although, unlike the Doctor Who trailer, we have not included background music in our radio trailer. It would have been applicable or beneficial for our production/ radio trailer as it would have over ridden the sound of the characters voices within the trailer, therefore completely defacing the point as to which we were trying to get across to our listening audience.
The documentary poster about Michael Jackson’s last tour is quite truly, in my opinion, iconic. I believe this because in the centre of it is Michael in one of his iconic, signature poses, bursting with colour and light. This reflects Michael and his life within the music business. Like my poster, this also is very simple with 3 large words, in the complete focus of the poster ‘This is it’, referring to his death and the enjoyment he got out of everything he involved during his life. This relates to our film because, on some level they are both about death: the death of Michael, and the death of the victims the fire fighters attempt to rescue, although they are neither centred on the subject. They are both upbeat and enlightening but with an undercut of a dark side within.
Evaluation: Question 3
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Once we had got a rough cut production, we set out on gaining audience feedback on what they thought of our production and if they had any suggestions for improvements to our film, ready for the final film. By doing this before completing our film, we were able to add the improvements to our final cut of our film. The feedback was very helpful to us when it came to adapting our rough cut to the final production as we were able to take the audiences suggestions and make it an acceptable standard for our target audience. However, we had some technical difficulties with the tape that we used to film our audience feedback; therefore we had to take a different approach on gaining the audiences opinions on our rough cut. I did this by using the popular social networking site Facebook. By doing this I was able to send out over 20 questionnaires (using our original survey/audience feedback questions) via email to a variety of different people: male and female within our target audience. This was very useful as I was able to send out a large quantity of people and gain more detailed feedback, therefore we were able to take a more detailed look at our film and pick up on the things that the audience suggested we improve upon. If I were to do it again I would use a larger variety of different feedback techniques as I found both the surveys and the filming approach very useful in gaining the feedback we required. If I were to film again I would gather around 10-15 people in a room and allow them to all watch our film at the same time, and after the film was finished, give them the questions and film them all together as I believe a group approach is better than an individual approach due to the length of time it took for us to gain each individual persons opinion. I would also use the survey technique over social networking sites: if would do this due to the variety of people they attract and that we are able to gain a wider variety of opinions that are not necessarily based where we need them to be for the filming (for example one of the questionnaires I sent out was to Scotland).
During the filming and editing process of our main production we were able to establish the meaning of our film and make it apparent to the audience due to the content we included. Due to our target audience being of mainly the working class we included characters of the working class, this way our target audience were able to associate and ‘connect’ with the characters and feel that they do belong and are at ease with their own status. Because of this we included mostly action shots of the fire fighters working/ training their courtyard: basically what they actually do for a living instead of what the media are portraying, allowing a real/ true incite as to what they do. We felt that these action shots were an important feature to our production and so we continued them throughout.
When we were planning our film, we intended the structure of our film to cut from one section e.g. outside with the hoses to an interview in the office. However when we arrived at the fire station the fire fighters were very keen to get involved with our production, this resulted them allowing us to film everything they did e.g. the cleaning of the hoses, inside the fire engine, ladder training and them going up 120ft in the cage on the back of a fire engine (RTC). They also invited us along to film them using the steel equipment that assists them when they attend car accidents etc. Due to their eager behaviour and interest in our film were able to gain a lot of action, hands-on footage. We used this footage to our advantage and included the appropriate action shots in our film, which made our film a much higher quality than we could have ever anticipated.
Overall, I believe that our film can connect to almost any one and is not culturally bound. Due to our production being about the Barnsley Fire Service, we are able to connect with not only the Barnsley population but with people throughout the country and possible the world due to the subject: the Fire Service, everybody is able to connect as they all have a local fire station that do the same job throughout the globe as everywhere, whether large or small village, town, city county, everywhere has local fire service protecting them.
Once we had got a rough cut production, we set out on gaining audience feedback on what they thought of our production and if they had any suggestions for improvements to our film, ready for the final film. By doing this before completing our film, we were able to add the improvements to our final cut of our film. The feedback was very helpful to us when it came to adapting our rough cut to the final production as we were able to take the audiences suggestions and make it an acceptable standard for our target audience. However, we had some technical difficulties with the tape that we used to film our audience feedback; therefore we had to take a different approach on gaining the audiences opinions on our rough cut. I did this by using the popular social networking site Facebook. By doing this I was able to send out over 20 questionnaires (using our original survey/audience feedback questions) via email to a variety of different people: male and female within our target audience. This was very useful as I was able to send out a large quantity of people and gain more detailed feedback, therefore we were able to take a more detailed look at our film and pick up on the things that the audience suggested we improve upon. If I were to do it again I would use a larger variety of different feedback techniques as I found both the surveys and the filming approach very useful in gaining the feedback we required. If I were to film again I would gather around 10-15 people in a room and allow them to all watch our film at the same time, and after the film was finished, give them the questions and film them all together as I believe a group approach is better than an individual approach due to the length of time it took for us to gain each individual persons opinion. I would also use the survey technique over social networking sites: if would do this due to the variety of people they attract and that we are able to gain a wider variety of opinions that are not necessarily based where we need them to be for the filming (for example one of the questionnaires I sent out was to Scotland).
During the filming and editing process of our main production we were able to establish the meaning of our film and make it apparent to the audience due to the content we included. Due to our target audience being of mainly the working class we included characters of the working class, this way our target audience were able to associate and ‘connect’ with the characters and feel that they do belong and are at ease with their own status. Because of this we included mostly action shots of the fire fighters working/ training their courtyard: basically what they actually do for a living instead of what the media are portraying, allowing a real/ true incite as to what they do. We felt that these action shots were an important feature to our production and so we continued them throughout.
When we were planning our film, we intended the structure of our film to cut from one section e.g. outside with the hoses to an interview in the office. However when we arrived at the fire station the fire fighters were very keen to get involved with our production, this resulted them allowing us to film everything they did e.g. the cleaning of the hoses, inside the fire engine, ladder training and them going up 120ft in the cage on the back of a fire engine (RTC). They also invited us along to film them using the steel equipment that assists them when they attend car accidents etc. Due to their eager behaviour and interest in our film were able to gain a lot of action, hands-on footage. We used this footage to our advantage and included the appropriate action shots in our film, which made our film a much higher quality than we could have ever anticipated.
Overall, I believe that our film can connect to almost any one and is not culturally bound. Due to our production being about the Barnsley Fire Service, we are able to connect with not only the Barnsley population but with people throughout the country and possible the world due to the subject: the Fire Service, everybody is able to connect as they all have a local fire station that do the same job throughout the globe as everywhere, whether large or small village, town, city county, everywhere has local fire service protecting them.
Evaluation: Question 4
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?
Before we started to film for our production, we used the internet to research our chosen topic: we did gathered some in depth detail about the work within the job role of a fire fighter, including the training and the service they provide for the service e.g. car washes and going round schools and explaining to children about the dangers of fire and prank calls. We used this information to give us an agenda and structure as to what we wished to find out from the fire service, to help structure our questions and to help develop our already existing ideas. We gained this information by using the South Yorkshire Fire Service website (http://www.syfire.gov.uk). The fire service website was a very useful tool in our documentary: it has the different locations and contact numbers of the local fire stations; this allowed us to contact our chosen fire station. We explained to the fire fighters our aims and activities of our filming and asked to see if it was possible for us to film them. It made it easy for us to choose a fire station due to their location for example travel issues etc. The website is regularly updated so changes to the station could be assessed easily.
The internet also allowed us to broaden our knowledge and understanding into our chosen genre: documentary. By doing this research, along with attending Sheffield’s documentary festival we were able to produce an effect documentary, working within the expectations of our genre. We analysis similar documentaries available on Channel 4 OD (Coppers) and www.youtube.com compared them to our documentary: how was it effective how did it get their point across ect. This enabled us to model our documentary on these similar attributes.
By using this blog we have been able to post on our findings, monitor our progression and recall all past work to develop our production to our aims that we set. We were able to monitor our contributions to our blog and add all necessary data: scripts, treatment, risk assessments, questions ect. The blog also enabled us to develop our creativity: by having a coloured background we were able to choose a background/image that resembled our blog and create the positive atmosphere we were trying to achieve (the fire picture for the background of our blog).
The camera equipment that was available to us helped us to develop our creativity of our work: we were able to take our location shots on a small, handheld Sony camera. Because the Sony handheld was used for the location shots it was easy for us to move around and take quick snap shots of where we would be filming, which is ideal when we were not wanting to set it down and film for a longer period of time. We used a Sony HDV camera to record our footage. This was due to the higher quality of the camera, memory and sound/microphone located on/in the camera. The HDV camera gave us a clear sound and a very detailed image when we were filming. Although when using the Sony HDV camera, we experienced a few problems due to the settings being a bit difficult to understand but was overcome when we took a detailed look at the camera and it’s settings as we wanted to understand the mechanics of the camera. Since we were able to understand the camera fully we were able to use the camera a lot more efficiently and effectively: using the clearer settings gaining us a much clearer picture and sound than we were able to before.
During the construction of our production we used a programme on an Apple Mac computer called Final Cut. Final cut was used to view our footage and to construct our sequence. The programme was very useful, easy to understand and highly organised: we were able to arrange our footage into separate files into the days we filmed. Before we began putting together a sequence I renamed the shots to label what the shot contained e.g. hoses unrolling. When it came to filming we found it highly useful when locating a shot and its relevance, we were able to easily choose and replay shots that we needed as they were easily identifiable.
When producing my poster, I used a programme called Photoshop to get the desired effect. The programme was highly useful and developed my creativity to such an extent that I never believed possible. It did this by the amount of options and effects it has to ‘play with’ and use at the individuals disposal. It was highly useful and very fun to use. By using Photoshop I was able to expand my knowledge, understanding and skills in the area usually associated with photography. It was enjoyable delving into a new area of the media and experiencing how their technologies work.
Our second media product, our radio trailer, was created, we used a programme on the Apple Macs we were using called garage band. This programme was also enjoyable to use and very easy to understand. We have fun when making our radio trailer as we were able to change many things about the characters voices: tone, pitch, volume ect. This progressed our creativity as we were able to enjoy the individuals voices, applying the different options to the voices including a certain programme that made the individual sound as if they were on helium, but we did not apply this as it would seem unprofessional and was the opposite effect as to what we were trying to project to the audience.
Before we started to film for our production, we used the internet to research our chosen topic: we did gathered some in depth detail about the work within the job role of a fire fighter, including the training and the service they provide for the service e.g. car washes and going round schools and explaining to children about the dangers of fire and prank calls. We used this information to give us an agenda and structure as to what we wished to find out from the fire service, to help structure our questions and to help develop our already existing ideas. We gained this information by using the South Yorkshire Fire Service website (http://www.syfire.gov.uk). The fire service website was a very useful tool in our documentary: it has the different locations and contact numbers of the local fire stations; this allowed us to contact our chosen fire station. We explained to the fire fighters our aims and activities of our filming and asked to see if it was possible for us to film them. It made it easy for us to choose a fire station due to their location for example travel issues etc. The website is regularly updated so changes to the station could be assessed easily.
The internet also allowed us to broaden our knowledge and understanding into our chosen genre: documentary. By doing this research, along with attending Sheffield’s documentary festival we were able to produce an effect documentary, working within the expectations of our genre. We analysis similar documentaries available on Channel 4 OD (Coppers) and www.youtube.com compared them to our documentary: how was it effective how did it get their point across ect. This enabled us to model our documentary on these similar attributes.
By using this blog we have been able to post on our findings, monitor our progression and recall all past work to develop our production to our aims that we set. We were able to monitor our contributions to our blog and add all necessary data: scripts, treatment, risk assessments, questions ect. The blog also enabled us to develop our creativity: by having a coloured background we were able to choose a background/image that resembled our blog and create the positive atmosphere we were trying to achieve (the fire picture for the background of our blog).
The camera equipment that was available to us helped us to develop our creativity of our work: we were able to take our location shots on a small, handheld Sony camera. Because the Sony handheld was used for the location shots it was easy for us to move around and take quick snap shots of where we would be filming, which is ideal when we were not wanting to set it down and film for a longer period of time. We used a Sony HDV camera to record our footage. This was due to the higher quality of the camera, memory and sound/microphone located on/in the camera. The HDV camera gave us a clear sound and a very detailed image when we were filming. Although when using the Sony HDV camera, we experienced a few problems due to the settings being a bit difficult to understand but was overcome when we took a detailed look at the camera and it’s settings as we wanted to understand the mechanics of the camera. Since we were able to understand the camera fully we were able to use the camera a lot more efficiently and effectively: using the clearer settings gaining us a much clearer picture and sound than we were able to before.
During the construction of our production we used a programme on an Apple Mac computer called Final Cut. Final cut was used to view our footage and to construct our sequence. The programme was very useful, easy to understand and highly organised: we were able to arrange our footage into separate files into the days we filmed. Before we began putting together a sequence I renamed the shots to label what the shot contained e.g. hoses unrolling. When it came to filming we found it highly useful when locating a shot and its relevance, we were able to easily choose and replay shots that we needed as they were easily identifiable.
When producing my poster, I used a programme called Photoshop to get the desired effect. The programme was highly useful and developed my creativity to such an extent that I never believed possible. It did this by the amount of options and effects it has to ‘play with’ and use at the individuals disposal. It was highly useful and very fun to use. By using Photoshop I was able to expand my knowledge, understanding and skills in the area usually associated with photography. It was enjoyable delving into a new area of the media and experiencing how their technologies work.
Our second media product, our radio trailer, was created, we used a programme on the Apple Macs we were using called garage band. This programme was also enjoyable to use and very easy to understand. We have fun when making our radio trailer as we were able to change many things about the characters voices: tone, pitch, volume ect. This progressed our creativity as we were able to enjoy the individuals voices, applying the different options to the voices including a certain programme that made the individual sound as if they were on helium, but we did not apply this as it would seem unprofessional and was the opposite effect as to what we were trying to project to the audience.
Pictures to accompany my Evaluation
Due to previous technical difficulties, I have decided to illustrate my evaluation separate from each other. This way I am still able to illustrate my evaluation and I am able to add a more detail description as to what the images represent and what we used each programme for with an image.
The Facebook logo represents our audience feedback. Due to technical difficulities with the tape I ended up gaining a large quantity of audience feedback off of the social networking site. This method deemed succesful and popular.
The blogger logo is for our blog (in use), where we were able to document our research, ideas and results on our film. this useful site enabled us to keep track of previous work and we were able to re look over previous if we were unsure what else we needed to gther for our film. We were also able to track our progress.
Below are the programmes we used on the Apple Mac computers we had aviable: photoshop, garageband and Final Cut Express. They were all easy to understand and easy to use. This made the prodcution/ process of our meda products quick to produce and it made it easy for us to see what was approprate and what wasn't.
The poster (see left), is an advertisment of the documentary of Michael Jacksons last tour. The behind the scenes documentary is revealing in many way. It relates to our film due to our film being a behind the scenes documentary, filming a world that people may not know or realise is there.
The picture (see right), is a shot of the cameras we used to film our footage of the fire fighters. At first the cameras were a bit tricky to use and understand the technology of but once we took the time to sit down and analyis the workings of the camera we found it relitivy easy to use and made our footage all that better due to the fact that we were able to use it correctly and get everything that we needed out of it over what it had to offer towards the contribution of our footage.
The Facebook logo represents our audience feedback. Due to technical difficulities with the tape I ended up gaining a large quantity of audience feedback off of the social networking site. This method deemed succesful and popular.The blogger logo is for our blog (in use), where we were able to document our research, ideas and results on our film. this useful site enabled us to keep track of previous work and we were able to re look over previous if we were unsure what else we needed to gther for our film. We were also able to track our progress.Below are the programmes we used on the Apple Mac computers we had aviable: photoshop, garageband and Final Cut Express. They were all easy to understand and easy to use. This made the prodcution/ process of our meda products quick to produce and it made it easy for us to see what was approprate and what wasn't.
The poster (see left), is an advertisment of the documentary of Michael Jacksons last tour. The behind the scenes documentary is revealing in many way. It relates to our film due to our film being a behind the scenes documentary, filming a world that people may not know or realise is there.
The picture (see right), is a shot of the cameras we used to film our footage of the fire fighters. At first the cameras were a bit tricky to use and understand the technology of but once we took the time to sit down and analyis the workings of the camera we found it relitivy easy to use and made our footage all that better due to the fact that we were able to use it correctly and get everything that we needed out of it over what it had to offer towards the contribution of our footage.
Friday 6 May 2011
Evaluation part two
3.) What have you learned from audience feedback?
When we had finished the rough cut of our production, we asked typical viewers to watch are film and suggest some improvements. This was a very helpful process for our film because we were able to make changes so that it was right for our target audience. However during the process of receiving our audience feedback we had a problem with the tape which we were recording on, it resolve this we gave it a different approach by using social networking skills. I did this by sending out the five questions we used for the original audience feedback film via email to family and friends. We received some very detailed feedback by family members, which helped to improve our project.
If I were to do something like this again then I would have used a filming approach to receive feedback from viewers because we received more accurate information, even though the tape got damaged we were still able to benefit from it as we had played it back on the camera after we had finished filming. During filming and editing, we ensured the meaning of our production was apparent to the audience because of the content we involved. We were aiming our film at a working class audience so therefore we needed to include working class people. Throughout the documentary it consists of action sequences to show what the fire fighters job involves, this was an important feature, which had to be continued through of the production.
The responds to the film differed from different people, this was valuable to our production because we were able to make changes that were adequate to the comments we received. People wanted to access information given to them consistently, when we took view’s from the audience feedback in the rough cut they said that, ‘I don't think it flowed very well when moving between sections (times: 4:30 - 4:34) the person doesn't stop talking before moves onto next section and Nigel starts talking again.’ (quote from audience feedback) This will affect the overall marks of our project because during editing we found this difficult to keep consistent.
During planning we intended the structure to flow from one section to another however, we had recorded at lot of action while we were filming which was not in our original plan. We did not realise that we would able to feature so much action in our film, due to what they would allow us to film while we were there.
Overall, I think that the film it cultural band, from the feedback which we received it showed that it was accessible to a Barnsley audience. Due to what they said about our film, ‘I really liked the action shots especially showing them how they would cut people out of the car, I think the showing the training they receive is really interesting and enlighten!’ (quote from audience feedback)
4.) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Before filming our documentary, we did research into the work and roles of fire fighters to help us get an overview of what our documentary would include. This was done using the fire service website to find out about their working roles which enabled us to develop our ideas further so that we would have an interesting documentary to keep viewers interested. We used internet resources to process our work so teaching staff for further support can access it. This was our only resource so I feel this could be prevention in case anything got lost.
The fire service website has been a useful resource for our group as it gave us details on how to get in touch with the fire service to film our documentary. The website is regularly updated so changes to the service could be accessed easily.
The internet has allowed us to develop further research into the creativity of our work, one of the tasks involved was to analyse a documentary, which was similar to our project by accessing YouTube and the Channel 4 website. We have been able to use this as a style model to get a basis of what type of shots we needed to include in our documentary. By using a blog, we have been able to include all of the contributions to what we have made for our documentary. Such as treatments, scripts etc which has been formatted with an appropriate layout to suit our documentary. Using a coloured background and including images onto our blog page has allowed us to be creative, as we have made it suitable to address the positive impact we wanted to create. Issues which were on the news about the fire service at the time were negative towards the fire service; one of our aims for creating the documentary about the fire service was to change the negative press.
Cameras helped with the creativity of our work and having access to the use of two cameras we were able to take location shots with the small Sony camera and file with the HDV tape camera. The small Sony camera we used on location as it was easy to use and carry, we decided to use a camera recording device as the photographs were clearer. We also used these cameras for filming our audience feed back, this was a useful exercise to use as it gave us feedback from a variety of people on how to improve the project, (images of location shots and shots from the documentary).
Through using the Sony HDV camera it has made out shots look more effective due to the camera being able to establish more of the setting. We experienced problems with the camera due to settings being difficult to understand, this was solved within a few minutes of looking at the setting list on the menu in the camera. Through using a Sony HDV camera it has made the shooting process easier as the camera shots were clear, also due to us being able to use the handle on the camera this made us able to pan with the camera and change camera angles.
Due some inconvience with the blog it has not let me post these questions with the rest of my evaluation, I am sorry that these are not illustrated it will not let me publish images onto my post.
When we had finished the rough cut of our production, we asked typical viewers to watch are film and suggest some improvements. This was a very helpful process for our film because we were able to make changes so that it was right for our target audience. However during the process of receiving our audience feedback we had a problem with the tape which we were recording on, it resolve this we gave it a different approach by using social networking skills. I did this by sending out the five questions we used for the original audience feedback film via email to family and friends. We received some very detailed feedback by family members, which helped to improve our project.
If I were to do something like this again then I would have used a filming approach to receive feedback from viewers because we received more accurate information, even though the tape got damaged we were still able to benefit from it as we had played it back on the camera after we had finished filming. During filming and editing, we ensured the meaning of our production was apparent to the audience because of the content we involved. We were aiming our film at a working class audience so therefore we needed to include working class people. Throughout the documentary it consists of action sequences to show what the fire fighters job involves, this was an important feature, which had to be continued through of the production.
The responds to the film differed from different people, this was valuable to our production because we were able to make changes that were adequate to the comments we received. People wanted to access information given to them consistently, when we took view’s from the audience feedback in the rough cut they said that, ‘I don't think it flowed very well when moving between sections (times: 4:30 - 4:34) the person doesn't stop talking before moves onto next section and Nigel starts talking again.’ (quote from audience feedback) This will affect the overall marks of our project because during editing we found this difficult to keep consistent.
During planning we intended the structure to flow from one section to another however, we had recorded at lot of action while we were filming which was not in our original plan. We did not realise that we would able to feature so much action in our film, due to what they would allow us to film while we were there.
Overall, I think that the film it cultural band, from the feedback which we received it showed that it was accessible to a Barnsley audience. Due to what they said about our film, ‘I really liked the action shots especially showing them how they would cut people out of the car, I think the showing the training they receive is really interesting and enlighten!’ (quote from audience feedback)
4.) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Before filming our documentary, we did research into the work and roles of fire fighters to help us get an overview of what our documentary would include. This was done using the fire service website to find out about their working roles which enabled us to develop our ideas further so that we would have an interesting documentary to keep viewers interested. We used internet resources to process our work so teaching staff for further support can access it. This was our only resource so I feel this could be prevention in case anything got lost.
The fire service website has been a useful resource for our group as it gave us details on how to get in touch with the fire service to film our documentary. The website is regularly updated so changes to the service could be accessed easily.
The internet has allowed us to develop further research into the creativity of our work, one of the tasks involved was to analyse a documentary, which was similar to our project by accessing YouTube and the Channel 4 website. We have been able to use this as a style model to get a basis of what type of shots we needed to include in our documentary. By using a blog, we have been able to include all of the contributions to what we have made for our documentary. Such as treatments, scripts etc which has been formatted with an appropriate layout to suit our documentary. Using a coloured background and including images onto our blog page has allowed us to be creative, as we have made it suitable to address the positive impact we wanted to create. Issues which were on the news about the fire service at the time were negative towards the fire service; one of our aims for creating the documentary about the fire service was to change the negative press.
Cameras helped with the creativity of our work and having access to the use of two cameras we were able to take location shots with the small Sony camera and file with the HDV tape camera. The small Sony camera we used on location as it was easy to use and carry, we decided to use a camera recording device as the photographs were clearer. We also used these cameras for filming our audience feed back, this was a useful exercise to use as it gave us feedback from a variety of people on how to improve the project, (images of location shots and shots from the documentary).
Through using the Sony HDV camera it has made out shots look more effective due to the camera being able to establish more of the setting. We experienced problems with the camera due to settings being difficult to understand, this was solved within a few minutes of looking at the setting list on the menu in the camera. Through using a Sony HDV camera it has made the shooting process easier as the camera shots were clear, also due to us being able to use the handle on the camera this made us able to pan with the camera and change camera angles.
Due some inconvience with the blog it has not let me post these questions with the rest of my evaluation, I am sorry that these are not illustrated it will not let me publish images onto my post.
3.) What have you learned from audience feedback?
When we had finished the rough cut of our production, we asked typical viewers to watch are film and suggest some improvements. This was a very helpful process for our film because we were able to make changes so that it was right for our target audience. However during the process of receiving our audience feedback we had a problem with the tape which we were recording on, it resolve this we gave it a different approach by using social networking skills. I did this by sending out the five questions we used for the original audience feedback film via email to family and friends. We received some very detailed feedback by family members, which helped to improve our project.
If I were to do something like this again then I would have used a filming approach to receive feedback from viewers because we received more accurate information, even though the tape got damaged we were still able to benefit from it as we had played it back on the camera after we had finished filming. During filming and editing, we ensured the meaning of our production was apparent to the audience because of the content we involved. We were aiming our film at a working class audience so therefore we needed to include working class people. Throughout the documentary it consists of action sequences to show what the fire fighters job involves, this was an important feature, which had to be continued through of the production.
The responds to the film differed from different people, this was valuable to our production because we were able to make changes that were adequate to the comments we received. People wanted to access information given to them consistently, when we took view’s from the audience feedback in the rough cut they said that, ‘I don't think it flowed very well when moving between sections (times: 4:30 - 4:34) the person doesn't stop talking before moves onto next section and Nigel starts talking again.’ (quote from audience feedback) This will affect the overall marks of our project because during editing we found this difficult to keep consistent.
During planning we intended the structure to flow from one section to another however, we had recorded at lot of action while we were filming which was not in our original plan. We did not realise that we would able to feature so much action in our film, due to what they would allow us to film while we were there.
Overall, I think that the film it cultural band, from the feedback which we received it showed that it was accessible to a Barnsley audience. Due to what they said about our film, ‘I really liked the action shots especially showing them how they would cut people out of the car, I think the showing the training they receive is really interesting and enlighten!’ (quote from audience feedback)
4.) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Before filming our documentary, we did research into the work and roles of fire fighters to help us get an overview of what our documentary would include. This was done using the fire service website to find out about their working roles which enabled us to develop our ideas further so that we would have an interesting documentary to keep viewers interested. We used internet resources to process our work so teaching staff for further support can access it. This was our only resource so I feel this could be prevention in case anything got lost.
The fire service website has been a useful resource for our group as it gave us details on how to get in touch with the fire service to film our documentary. The website is regularly updated so changes to the service could be accessed easily.
The internet has allowed us to develop further research into the creativity of our work, one of the tasks involved was to analyse a documentary, which was similar to our project by accessing YouTube and the Channel 4 website. We have been able to use this as a style model to get a basis of what type of shots we needed to include in our documentary. By using a blog, we have been able to include all of the contributions to what we have made for our documentary. Such as treatments, scripts etc which has been formatted with an appropriate layout to suit our documentary. Using a coloured background and including images onto our blog page has allowed us to be creative, as we have made it suitable to address the positive impact we wanted to create. Issues which were on the news about the fire service at the time were negative towards the fire service; one of our aims for creating the documentary about the fire service was to change the negative press.
Cameras helped with the creativity of our work and having access to the use of two cameras we were able to take location shots with the small Sony camera and file with the HDV tape camera. The small Sony camera we used on location as it was easy to use and carry, we decided to use a camera recording device as the photographs were clearer. We also used these cameras for filming our audience feed back, this was a useful exercise to use as it gave us feedback from a variety of people on how to improve the project, (images of location shots and shots from the documentary).
Through using the Sony HDV camera it has made out shots look more effective due to the camera being able to establish more of the setting. We experienced problems with the camera due to settings being difficult to understand, this was solved within a few minutes of looking at the setting list on the menu in the camera. Through using a Sony HDV camera it has made the shooting process easier as the camera shots were clear, also due to us being able to use the handle on the camera this made us able to pan with the camera and change camera angles.
Due some inconvience with the blog it would not upload my last two questions of my evaluation so I have re- uploaded these last two as orginals with no illutration as it would not let me do so.
When we had finished the rough cut of our production, we asked typical viewers to watch are film and suggest some improvements. This was a very helpful process for our film because we were able to make changes so that it was right for our target audience. However during the process of receiving our audience feedback we had a problem with the tape which we were recording on, it resolve this we gave it a different approach by using social networking skills. I did this by sending out the five questions we used for the original audience feedback film via email to family and friends. We received some very detailed feedback by family members, which helped to improve our project.
If I were to do something like this again then I would have used a filming approach to receive feedback from viewers because we received more accurate information, even though the tape got damaged we were still able to benefit from it as we had played it back on the camera after we had finished filming. During filming and editing, we ensured the meaning of our production was apparent to the audience because of the content we involved. We were aiming our film at a working class audience so therefore we needed to include working class people. Throughout the documentary it consists of action sequences to show what the fire fighters job involves, this was an important feature, which had to be continued through of the production.
The responds to the film differed from different people, this was valuable to our production because we were able to make changes that were adequate to the comments we received. People wanted to access information given to them consistently, when we took view’s from the audience feedback in the rough cut they said that, ‘I don't think it flowed very well when moving between sections (times: 4:30 - 4:34) the person doesn't stop talking before moves onto next section and Nigel starts talking again.’ (quote from audience feedback) This will affect the overall marks of our project because during editing we found this difficult to keep consistent.
During planning we intended the structure to flow from one section to another however, we had recorded at lot of action while we were filming which was not in our original plan. We did not realise that we would able to feature so much action in our film, due to what they would allow us to film while we were there.
Overall, I think that the film it cultural band, from the feedback which we received it showed that it was accessible to a Barnsley audience. Due to what they said about our film, ‘I really liked the action shots especially showing them how they would cut people out of the car, I think the showing the training they receive is really interesting and enlighten!’ (quote from audience feedback)
4.) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Before filming our documentary, we did research into the work and roles of fire fighters to help us get an overview of what our documentary would include. This was done using the fire service website to find out about their working roles which enabled us to develop our ideas further so that we would have an interesting documentary to keep viewers interested. We used internet resources to process our work so teaching staff for further support can access it. This was our only resource so I feel this could be prevention in case anything got lost.
The fire service website has been a useful resource for our group as it gave us details on how to get in touch with the fire service to film our documentary. The website is regularly updated so changes to the service could be accessed easily.
The internet has allowed us to develop further research into the creativity of our work, one of the tasks involved was to analyse a documentary, which was similar to our project by accessing YouTube and the Channel 4 website. We have been able to use this as a style model to get a basis of what type of shots we needed to include in our documentary. By using a blog, we have been able to include all of the contributions to what we have made for our documentary. Such as treatments, scripts etc which has been formatted with an appropriate layout to suit our documentary. Using a coloured background and including images onto our blog page has allowed us to be creative, as we have made it suitable to address the positive impact we wanted to create. Issues which were on the news about the fire service at the time were negative towards the fire service; one of our aims for creating the documentary about the fire service was to change the negative press.
Cameras helped with the creativity of our work and having access to the use of two cameras we were able to take location shots with the small Sony camera and file with the HDV tape camera. The small Sony camera we used on location as it was easy to use and carry, we decided to use a camera recording device as the photographs were clearer. We also used these cameras for filming our audience feed back, this was a useful exercise to use as it gave us feedback from a variety of people on how to improve the project, (images of location shots and shots from the documentary).
Through using the Sony HDV camera it has made out shots look more effective due to the camera being able to establish more of the setting. We experienced problems with the camera due to settings being difficult to understand, this was solved within a few minutes of looking at the setting list on the menu in the camera. Through using a Sony HDV camera it has made the shooting process easier as the camera shots were clear, also due to us being able to use the handle on the camera this made us able to pan with the camera and change camera angles.
Due some inconvience with the blog it would not upload my last two questions of my evaluation so I have re- uploaded these last two as orginals with no illutration as it would not let me do so.
Evaluation
Evaluation
1) In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conversation of real media products?
In our documentary on the fire service we had to use a flow of continuity, this was due to our product being contemporary and in the present. This means we would have to be on a standard with other present documentaries and continuity had to take place. Firstly we had to keep an eye on lighting meaning that we had a constant well lit surrounding , by doing this we always filmed in the daylight meaning when we edited the clips together we would not have a problem of an alternating daylight and night. The weather was also crucial in keeping continuity as we didn’t want drastic weather changes within our product, luckily there were cloudy weather with sunny spells everyday on the week we filmed.
Our aim throughout the product was to entertain the audience, this resulted in a must use of continuity to keep viewers from disappointment. If we didn’t keep continuity then the documentary would look unprofessional which would result in the audience losing interest and failing to watch the entire product. Throughout the documentary the fire-fighters on film were always in uniform as this would allow the audience to connect to the profession that they are in, if they were dressed casually the audience could become confused as to their roles in the production. Throughout our product we tried to stick to a 180 degree rule in as people may get confused if the camera was to shift between opposite angles , in order the do this we always kept the camera on the same side of the room and then used varying shot techniques such as tilts and panning the camera. We also used representation as a key factor in our documentary, for example the fire service is a male dominated profession. But the number of female fire-fighters is growing; this was represented within our documentary as we had filmed a male led troop with the exception the one female. We aimed to fulfil audience pleasure by exposing the audience to action and daily routines of real life firemen, our documentary would have wide appeal as at the time of production the fire service was being widely publicised in the media due to strikes and pay cuts. Despite negative press we aimed to show the audience a more positive and appealing aspect to fire fighters and how much appreciation they should receive due to the bravery in their profession. Our documentary would follow standard the standard procedure of a normal documentary including action clips, interviews with various team members and the usual voiceovers of a standard procedure documentary. On the other hand our documentary was unique as at the time of the press exposing the nature of the strikes no other fire service documentaries were around. This would give our product a unique edge as no other documentaries were around at the time of ours to compete with the available market share.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
When making our product we wanted the audience the feel how real the documentary was and for them to make a connection with the fire-fighters within our product. We did this by the allowing the fire-fighters to open up to the cameras and talk about once in a lifetime experiences such as saving people and witnessing death. Being a fire-fighter maybe heroic but the day to day job puts the fire-fighters in jeopardy of danger.
Our documentary will show how crucial the fire service is in our local area and the measures they will take to ensure we live in a safe environment.(http://www.syfire.gov.uk/Safeathome.asp) The aim within our documentary is to project the life of a fire-fighter into to homes of the people they are risking there life for.
To advertise our documentary we had to make a poster, after looking through various examples of posters we decided to keep ours basic. We decided this as basic posters with simple messages had the greatest affect, winning awards and gaining praise from the media. For our poster we would have a basic message on the back of a fire engine as this would hit strike the audience as the message was ‘stop arson around’ it uses mimic swearing as a way to emphasise how much time firemen waste responding to prank calls. For our Radio trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjcRilsjWcc&feature=player_embedded) we used a real emphasis on sound effects this was because it would draw the listener’s attention and interest them, we wanted them to feel like they wanted more resulting in them to watch our documentary, the sounds used were fire engine sirens and fire-fighters talking about death experiences.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In order to make improvements to our documentary we carried out an audience feedback test where we showed our rough cut ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4le5jHnK4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL) to a small audience and asked them to decide which areas can be do better. Beforehand the rough cut had no voice over’s so the audience picked up on this and expressed that they thought voice over’s should be added, when they were added the audience believe our product was more professional. The audience also pointed out where bad cuts and poor editing skills had been used; this was helpful as this was later corrected. To further improvements we sent out questionnaires with our final cut (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fG-xI1dDGs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL) on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. This enabled us to gain wider audience feedback which could improve our documentary. From this we found that our documentary may only appeal to a local audience but because of the strikes and media attention on the fire service a larger target market would be available as our documentary is present and relevant. We had different responses from our questioned audience which helped the process of our final product. Overall the editing process was difficult due to the amount of filming we did; this caused a poor flow at the end of our production. If we were to make another documentary the planning process would be better as we would know before hand what we wanted to film and where it go , this time around because of the reality and nature of our product it could not be scripted meaning we had to take opportunities to film as they arose. Overall looking at audience feedback our product was easy to understand and easy to relate to, this could result in large viewing figures and people as the documentary connects to the audience. The product will receive more viewers from the local area of Barnsley but with the right exposure and marketing could have a more national appeal.
4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Prior to the production of our documentary we had to look at similar products to ensure ours could be the best possible using the technology available at the time. We also massed a large amount of research online using various websites such as the Barnsley fire service site (http://www.syfire.gov.uk/1421.asp) and Google to enhance a wider range of sources which could allow us to find information to the best of our ability. The internet was the best tool within our research as it enabled us to watch further documentaries on the BBC I player , channel 4 on demand and also channel 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3trH-M6bxm8&has_verified=1) watching these documentaries allowed us to further our knowledge on what a good and bad documentary consists of. In the long run this would help us to film our documentary in a professional manner and avoid the slip ups of previous products.
While making our documentary we also used blogger (http://wwwthefireservicetoday.blogspot.com/) to fish our research together and plan, this was simple and effective to use as I could view my other team members contributions without seeing them in person. Also blogger would save everything posted and as it was online it was easy to go back and use as there was no hassle of searching through papers and notes. We tried to use the best available cameras to film our documentary, the 2 we used were the Sony handheld camera and the large HD camera. The smaller one was used to take photographs and was a success as it didn’t tend to pixelate and would take clear bright images. The larger camera was used to film the movie pieces for our documentary we opted to use this as it filmed in HD and was the best quality at the time we were filming. When we filmed our audience feedback we used the smaller Sony camera as it was accessible and easy to take to different locations due to its small size. The larger HD camera was perfect as lighting looked great on it and it was easy to alternate between different shot techniques.
To record our voice over’s and radio trailer a H4 zoom recorder was used as this was up to date with technology and provided a crisp clear sound giving a more professional feel to our documentary.
Editing was done on IMovie and Final Cut Pro as on the Apple Macs this was the best current technology for editing movies
Using final cut pro can be quite hard to use at first as it quite a complex programme, after we got used to it cutting scenes together and adding special effects came quite easy.
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