6. Audience Feedback - Documentary
Q: Do you think the title “Ridin’” is appropriate for this documentary?
A: Yes I do, as I knew what the documentary was about straight away. The font is effective too as I knew from the tarmac
appearance of the font that the theme of the documentary was to do with BMX’s or motorbikes.
Q: Do you think the setting of the documentary (Skate Park) is appropriate for the subject matter of the
documentary?
A: Yes I do as it fits with the theme, and you can see graffiti and skate board ramps in the background of the documentary
which relates to the skating and BMXing that is shown on screen
Q: Were you aware of the genre of the documentary from what the opening of the documentary suggests?
A: I was aware that the documentary had an alternative style from the start as the camera work captures the alternative
characters and the setting reflects the alternative nature of the documentary as well
Q: Do you think the special effects and image manipulation used in the documentary editing is appropriate
for the documentary?
A: Yes I do because the bright colours and unique filters that have been used throughout show that the documentary is
aimed mostly at a teenage audience, and also reflects the “youth” in the documentary as well
Q: Do you think our documentary follows the basic conventions of a sport documentary, or deviates from
these typical conventions?
A: I think the documentary has elements of both; the camera work is conventional, yet the editing and colour use is
different than what I have seen in a typical sport documentary before
Q: What improvements would you suggest for the documentary?
A: I think one thing I would improve is to use more interviews in the documentary
7. Audience Feedback – Ancillary Products
Q: Do you think that my final ancillary products link with the documentary?
A: Yes I do, because they all have a similar appearance and use a consistent colour scheme which I find really appealing.
Q: Do you think the images and fonts I have used in my ancillaries are suitable for the genre of the
documentary?
A: I do yes because they are bold and make a statement, just like the sports featured in the documentary make bold
statements also. The images are appropriate as they all feature an alternative appearance linking to the alternative nature of
the documentary, and are visually appealing which makes me want to watch the documentary.
Q: If you saw the ancillary products before the documentary, would it make you want to view the
documentary?
A: Yes it would because I like the images featured in both the newspaper advertisement and magazine review, and images
are important to me. I’m also interested in this genre of documentary so I would watch it based on your ancillaries
Q: Are there any improvements you could suggest for my ancillary products?
A: Not really as they all appeal to me, I think they all work well together, and individually on their own.
This is the channel 4 newspaper advertisement that I researched in order to base my final ancillary newspaper advertisement on. I chose to use a channel 4 newspaper advertisement as research and reference due to the fact that channel 4 documentary advertisement are renound for their success. I also used it for a general basis of the layout for my advertisement, whilst adapting it by using certain conventions from a BBC one newspaper advertisement to achieve a BBC documentary style.
All of my final ancillary products are linked through the alternative house style that they share. The mise en scene in each of my ancillaries is the same, as I have featured photographs in each ancillary that have the same characters wearing the same alternative clothing, as well as featuring a BMX bike in each of them in order to establish a direct link between them too. As well as this, the colour effects and filters that I have applied to each photograph also link the mise en scene of my ancillaries as I have used a high contrast and desaturation of them so that they are all similar in colour and style.
We used Survey Monkey in order to carry out research into what our target demographic would prefer in terms of colour, style and approach for our ancillary products. We created three questionnaires in order to find out our target audience’s preferences in a magazine review and poser in order to input this feedback into the creation of our ancillary products. We found out from these questionnaires feedback such as that the audience were primarily male, and aged 19-21 mostly which enabled us to know the gender and age our final products would be aimed at. We also found out that the target audience would have rather seen an aspect of adrenaline rush in a documentary opposed to anything else which we would base our final outcome on. All of the feedback we received from the online questionnaires was inputted into making my ancillary products and documentary, as we put all of the information into pie charts and graphs.
We conducted interviews with two students at Eccles College who are part of our target demographic audience and asked them questions regarding what they would prefer our documentary style to be. We videoed this to put it on our blog as part of our research. In asking both students the questions we did such as “would you prefer subtle or bright colours?” we found out that members of our target demographic would prefer to read a review from the "Empire" magazine, opposed to a review from The Telegraph. Also, that our target audience would prefer to see a poster that is bright and colourful rather than one that consists of subtle colours.
I have conducted a focus group in order to receive feedback from individuals belonging to my target demographic audience, regarding their response to my use of genre convention within the documentary, as well as their personal opinion about if it works well or not, and if they enjoyed viewing the video. Based on this feedback, I’d be able to make changes to the documentary in order to improve it to make it more appropriate for my target demographic. I have learnt from my focus group feedback that I could have incorporated more interviews into the documentary as this is what my focus group said they thought would improve the documentary as a whole. Despite this, based on the feedback I feel confident in the use of conventions and the incorporation of non-conventional techniques within the documentary. I therefore feel successful in the final product.
I have learnt from this feedback that my ancillaries in general work well and link to my final product successfully. I can therefore infer that my final products are suitable for my target demographic and target them directly.
We have also used YouTube as a means of audience feedback, through uploading our documentary to it, and then inviting individuals which belong to our target demographic group through social networking sites, and asking them to leave a comment below the video of what they thought of it.
I have used Adobe Photoshop in order to create my final ancillary products – magazine review double page spread, poster and newspaper advertisement and the logo for our production Media Studies Productions. I have used a heavy use of photo editing in order to achieve the look I intended based on our research into our target demographics' preferences of a newspaper advertisement and magazine review.
I tested Adobe Premiere before using it to edit our documentary. I used previously filmed clips of Chris making a cup of tea, and ordered, edited and scaled the clips to make a short film. I have used Adobe Premiere software in order to compile, order and edit our short documentary. I used techniques such as “razoring” clips in order to cut out unwanted footage, as well as ordering it and changing the length of certain clips. I added filters over particular parts of the footage in order to make the documentary brighter and more appealing to the target demographic audience based on the research we carried out and we found that the target demographic would find a brighter and more casual approach to the documentary, rather than serious and dull colouring.
I have used Blogger to record all of our progress throughout the project. I have created new posts (and edited some afterwards) in order to ensure that all of my work was on there and visible to be viewed and marked. I have used labelling to ensure that all my individual posts had an order. I used the following labels; A: Product Research, B: Market Research, C: Planning, D: Construction, E: Final Product and F: Evaluation. Each aspect of work I have done for the project falls under a certain label in order to give my blog structure.
We used a digital camera on the day of filming in order to capture photo stills of the footage we were capturing in order to compile a photo story board, as well as having authentic photos of BMXers and Skaters to use for our final ancillary products – magazine double page spread review and a newspaper advertisement. We decided to take these photos at the same time as capturing our footage as we believed it would achieve better quality photos that were taken “in action” and therefore more interesting for the audience and better quality for our ancillaries.
