We understood from the start that we needed to use all the forms and conventions we had learnt in order to create a successful documentary. We used many different ones, whilst developing and challenging others as we saw fit.
We used the documentaries we had written case studies about to highlight important codes and conventions to ensure we used them in our own documentary. These included things such as:
- Cutaways
- Subheadings
- Chronological Order
- Interviews
- Opening Credits
- Real Footage
It was vital to use that we used these to make our documentary look as realistic as possible.
We also wanted to add our own twist on the documentary and so we wanted to develop and challenge some of the conventions of a typical documentary. We challenged the fact that most of the documentaries we watched had very obvious interviews; the people we would expect to be in that kind of documentary. We didn't want to convey to expectations and so we decided that we would interview someone who isn't the first choice, such as Mr Lefroy, who whilst a very important figure is still a 'small' figure. We also planned that if we were to continue to make a full documentary, that we would interview local business entrepreneurs and the general public, as they are the ones making the vote and who are going to be effected by it. However, we understood that there needed to be a hook to our documentary and this is why we decided to include the exclusive interview from the US following the presidential election, as we understood as within at media, there needed to be something to draw the audience to watching the documentary.
We also wanted to develop some of the normal codes and conventions. The one we decided to develop was the use of the questions appearing on the screen. In many of the documentaries we watched, the questions were either never heard, or only heard, not seen. We understood why in most cases, but in some, the responses can be quite ambiguous, and we made the decision to visually add the questions in order to make out documentary easier to follow. In our audience feedback, this was something that was picked up on and was liked by our target audience.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Out of the three choices, the ancillary texts we decided to create were the radio trailer and newspaper advertisement.
The first ancillary we created was the newspaper advertisement. We made this choice over doing the double page magazine spread as we thought it was more suitable for our audience of adults, who would likely read a newspaper over an advertisement. The Daily Mail is a middle market tabloid newspaper, which we thought would be a good choice as our topic is formal. However we thought placing the article in a broadsheet number would be too formal for our purpose. The newspaper itself is very accessible to everybody, which helps spread the article quickly and easily. We also made the decision to link our Twitter and Facebook pages, which contain even more information and a way to share opinions about the documentary.
We ensured that the newspaper article explored the main contents of our documentary, which helps to intrigue readers and in turn encourage viewers. The information we wrote about included information about the interviewees Jeremy Lefroy; including some of his quotes, and we also spoke about the US Presidential Election, as this is also a very recent event. The use of direct quotes create a link between the newspaper article and the finished documentary, and helps keep consistency between our main task and our ancillary. Other information such as dates, times and channels of premiere were included at the end, in order to avoid ambiguity about our documentary.
Another link between the two texts was the use of images. The left hand side of the newspaper ad contains an imagine, took by us, of Big Ben, which portrays the setting of the documentary. The right hand side of the ad contains an image of President Trump, which again helps readers familiarise themselves before watching the documentary. As the image is used for educational purposes only, there was no need to seek permission to use it in our ancillary.
Radio Trailer:
The second ancillary we made was the radio trailer. The main reason we chose this as our second piece is that we agreed that doing both the magazine and newspaper were very similar, and therefore to be able to diversify our marketing package, we thought the radio trailer was a better choice. A radio trailer is a very quick way of getting information out there, as they are listened to by millions everyday, sometimes we don't even notice that we know all the words to particular radio ads. Our main aim was to create something simple, memorable and informative to our target audience.
We tried to ensure our radio trailer followed normal codes and conventions, and therefore we made sure it was short and snappy, engaging people from the very start. We included the same information as in the newspaper ad, such as the time and channel, in order to keep consistent. Another way we linked the radio ad to the main task was through using the same music, as this helps to familiarise the listener when they watch the documentary. We also used quotes from Mr Lefroy, which helps to put together an image in the listener as to what they can expect from watching the documentary. The use of the rhetorical questions in the trailer will help to engage listeners, and as BREXIT is a very current issue, we knew that the majority listening would have their on views and ideas on the topic.
We also used a male voice to do the radio ad, as we though this added a level of seriousness to the topic, and in many of the radio ads we listened to during the research stages, a male voice was much more common than a female.
Extras:
Alongside the compulsory ancillaries, we decided to create some extras which are more up to date, and would help with an effective marketing strategy. We created two social media pages, one for Facebook, one for Twitter and we also created a TV advertisement for our documentary to be shown on the BBC and on iPlayer.
The first social media page we made was Facebook. Facebook is now more commonly used by the older generation, with the majority of their users actually being middle aged. We took advantage of this chance of viral marketing, as through Facebook we can promote to our target audience, adults, as most will have voted in the BREXIT vote. Facebook allowed us to promote, posting snippets of our documentary to our account. This allowed for audience feedback and an array of different views and opinions on our piece. During the construction page we posted snippets, and we were able to change how we were editing depending on how people commented on what they saw.
However, we knew that those who were younger than 18 would likely be interest in politics, as even though they might not have been able to vote, they are arguably going to be more effected in their lifetime. As we understood this, we decided to create a Twitter page. This allowed us to not only promote, but communicate with those unable to vote. The 140 character limit, improved audience feedback tremendously, as it as much more focused. This similarly allowed us to make ongoing changes to our documentary.
Finally, we created a TV advertisement for the BBC. The ad would be shown directly to our target market during the ad breaks of similar TV shows. We used discarded footage to make the AD, which helps directly link it to our documentary, and really showcase what the documentary has in store. Unlike our radio trailer and newspaper ad, there isn't much information on the TV ad, as we decided it was going to be on the BBC it perhaps wasn't as necessary.
Overall:
On the while, I think the combination of our main task with the ancillaries work well together as a marketing package. There are cross links between all of them for example, the same music in the documentary and the radio trailer, direct quotes in the newspaper advertisement; similar themed images in the newspaper advertisement; direct quotes in the radio trailer etc.
I think the key to a successful marketing package is consistency throughout and the same themes, tones etc. All of this I think was achieved through our two ancillaries and I believe the added extras would work as a bonus, especially in a world so dominated by social media and the media in general.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The video above shows snippets of various audience feedback we got continuously whilst creating our documentary.
With the production of any media product, it is vital to gather audience feedback from your target audience, as most of the time, you will not see mistakes or things that could be changed in your own work. It was important for us from the early stages to receive continuous audience feedback.
The first, and arguably the most important question, we wanted to know the answers too was whether our documentary followed the conventions of a real one. Thankfully, the feedback we received was that it did through the use of; subheadings, cutaways during interviews etc. This was helpful to know as we knew we had succeeded in the eyes of our target market in creating something that looked realistic and professional.
Like with anything, its always important to know what we could have done better and we made sure to ask our target audience if there was anything we thought could have been improved. The first comment we got was about the audio buzz in the audio. As I spoke about on this blog, this buzz was something we were both aware of and we both tried to remove during the editing stages using programs such as audacity. We never found a way around this and instead decided to add music, to try and deter attention away from it. However, we know for next time to rehearse recording on our equipment before hand and testing the sound quality. Another comment we received was that we should add longer interviews. In total we had 9 minutes of interview footage which we had to cut down to bout 2 minutes. If we were to make a longer extract we would have loved to involve so much more of the footage.
Overall, we have learned that not everyone will like the same thing and that it is almost impossible to please your entire audience. We tried to implement forms and conventions and take on board comments we received from our peers throughout the process of making our documentary.
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We are very lucky to have access to such a wide range of media technologies and it would be a shame not to use them in as many ways possible. They came in useful though every stage of our coursework and without them we don't believe we could have made the documentary that we did.
In the research stages we were able to watch many documentaries on Netflix, YouTube, TV etc and we also watched many powerpoints/prezis/slide shares, which assisted in our research into documentaries. These were all so easily accessible and helped us get first hand research instead of having to simply read about it from a book or google search.
Perhaps the most important stage for us to use media technologies was in the construction stages. Without the use of Windows movie maker, Audacity and Microsoft programs, the creation of our documentary and ancillaries would not have been possible.
Finally, we used Prezi in the evaluation questions, in order to answer the questions in a variety of different forms, in order to exploit the media technologies we had available to us. This also made it more exciting to answer the questions, rather than just writing an essay for each- it allowed us to be much more creative,
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