Codes and Conventions

Issues with factual Programming

Issues with factual programming:

Accuracy is crucial to news providers because the facts that they provide are the only way the truth can be provided to the audience, so if the information is biased or false, their reputation could be at risk essentially causing them to lose their current status in the industry. Accuracy is a term which ensures the trust of the audience due to the stories produced , whether it's false or not, the audience will still consider the information provided. However, if mistakes are consistently made and the information is invalid the audience’s patience will eventually wear off and they will lose interest.

Accuracy is vital if you wish to please and keep an audience, they will much prefer to read a story with straight facts rather than information that may or may not be true, for example, in the Biggie and Tupac documentary. In the documentary Nick Broomfield (filmmaker) was interviewing people who knew the two revered rappers, as he gained valuable information, he started stated facts about the rappers through a voice-over. But the audience would much rather hear from people (personally) that actually knew the rappers instead of information gathered, some of the people may provide false and exaggerated information which may lead to negative outcomes. Many interviews will have to take place with eyewitnesses to ensure you get the best possible story to ensure everything you report is as factual as possible. Another example would be in “supersize me” the presenter does not tell the truth as it really is, he also exaggerates some of the topics which makes him quite in-accurate.

Balance means that the documentary need to keep a topic fair to both sides discussing, there are always two sides to a story and the information told to the viewers should be correct, fair and equal. It is very important to keep a balance on views because this then allows information on both sides to be investigated. Ensuring that both sides of an argument are shown is extremely vital as it prevents an opinion being represented to a viewer, making them believe everything without knowing all the facts from each side. For example in the Biggie and Tupac documentary there were arguments and opinions from both sides (friends of Tupac and friends of Biggie), they were asked similar questions about each rapper. However, the rappers were portrayed differently in terms of behaviour and attitude. Biggie was portrayed as a great person and role model, as for Tupac he was portrayed almost the exact opposite compared to Biggie, he was portrayed quite negatively, showing rational behaviour towards fellow rappers and fans, however he did have some positive sparks within the documentary helping out his friends and family. Another great example is Supersize me, in this documentary the presenter consumes McDonalds and gives the audience a perspective on the outcomes of the food, he does exaggerate some parts of the topic making him quite in-accurate, however a majority of the documentary is quite self-explanatory due to the fact that the audience can see the problems with eating unhealthy products such as the weight gain, vomiting etc.

Subjectivity is a term given to the audience’s opinion whilst discussing a popular topic and is basically the opposite. Subjectivity is sometimes avoided during TV programming as it can prevent the facts being used and may result in the programme being slightly biased towards the target audiences views, however presenters may use this method to help manipulate the audience into seconding their opinion. It is acceptable to portray opinions on discussions but it’s important for the audience to mention each of their opinions so that it isn’t necessarily the opinion of anyone else, this will prevent the viewers from thinking you will be biased towards your beliefs. A great example would “Aileen life and death of a serial killer” because of the way the Nick Broomfield bonds with the main lead, he asks questions about her past and he slowly makes her realise that what shes done in her past. Aileen then reacts to the questions and provides emotional feelings about her past experienceand she then reacts to the question and explains how she feels and what her opinions were. 

Opinion is used when the producer wants to help show the viewers what members of the public think it is important they choose a wide variety of people from different walks of life to ensure that the answers and opinions they get will be as widespread and unique as possible. It is always important to keep a mature balance whilst showing the opinions of others. Keeping an argument fair is extremely vital because if too many opinions are shown, this states that they agree with an argument, which will lead to a biased show, which is something that should definitely be prevented. Presenters shouldn’t mention their opinion as it can make viewers believe they’re being biased and in-accurate. An example of this method is used In Aileen and the death of serial killer, in this documentary the lead person is asked various different questions about her past and current situations and she portrays her honest answers and opinions.

Representation is a method which means how something is constantly portrayed. Presenters have to be very careful not to stereotype anything during a TV programme as this can lead to some in-accurate information. For example, you can often find the media stereotyping Muslims, claiming that all Muslims are terrorists or that the religion in general portrays hatred and violence, this sort of stereotyping is very offensive and can lead to problems for Muslims all over the world. TV programmes in general should not stereotype as its unfair and can often mislead, which isn’t what people should aim for in a factual programme.

Privacy is a major issue when it comes to TV programming because everyone has a right to be free from public attention. Journalists must avoid the unfair treatment of individuals, sometimes journalists will be asked not to approach or ask questions. The best way to tell if the story invades someone’s privacy is to imagine yourself in their shoes. Most TV programmes try to remain away from people’s personal lives as they may feel uncomfortable, however, sometimes they will go to any extent and invade someone’s privacy to achieve the most efficient outcome. For example, the News Of The World were a part of a phone hacking scandal where they obtained illegal access into a missing girl’s voicemail, listening to her messages and collecting information they would later turn into a report. This then led to them creating stories for the newspapers, but people got really suspicious as to how they obtained such precise information. After years of investigations the employees were eventually arrested.

Final Documentary

Documentary Evaluation

Evaluation

In this evaluation I will be explaining the development of the pre-production work and how it helped us essentially develop ideas for our final documentary. I will also be explaining how the research that we gained helped understand the components needed for success is about space and the mysteries that it holds, basically explaining the obvious with in depth detail and precision. I critically explained how space functions through time and the key factors which make it such a fascinating topic to discuss. Before we began filming the documentary we came as a group and designed a few mind maps, this allowed us to craft new ideas together to form the documentary, the ideas consisted of stars, asteroids, planets etc. This generally provided us with options which allowed us to progress further, as well as how we as individuals would contribute towards the documentary.

Once we figured out how the documentary would essentially run due to the mind map, me, Max, Ali and Emmanuel decided to choose certain roles which we felt comfortable pursuing, the roles consisted of director, actor, camera man and sound man. Since this was originally Max's idea he was the director/producer plus the unique skills he possesses in CGI made the decision all the more easy. I personally decided to be the actor of the documentary because I felt that I suited the role of presenter due to my body language and voice. Ali decided to pursue the role of the camera man due to his successful work in photography & film, his we felt this would ensure successful shots throughout the documentary creating vast amounts of excitement for the audience, and Emmanuel pursued the role of sound because of his skill in editing music tracks, we felt that this would enhance the creativity of the documentary making it much more enjoyable to watch due to the rhythm, which evidently builds up the anticipation.

With the roles decided we were all set to begin researching the chosen ideas from the mind map. We started off by locating suitable websites in order to gain the necessary information on space, we found a few websites which had information on space. All these websites had information on space. However there was one website which provided information which we specifically needed, this website consisted of the moon, asteroids, galaxies, planets and gravity, the name of this website is called "Documentary Heaven". Specific details were shown to us on how they function in space, this helped us essentially find our way us come up with unique questions for our questionnaire (survey) which we would portray to the people.

Once the secondary research was officially complete, we moved on and began creating the questionnaire to deduct primary research. From the help of secondary research it made the production of the questionnaire so much easier due to the fact that it provided us with the correct knowledge of space, and also the responses from the website evidently show what kind of people were interested in the topic. Basically the responses consisted of curious teenagers aged 15-17 and adults aged 25-30 (from this knowledge we tried to balance the age in between); this helped us in terms of actually locating the correct audience to fully enlarge the success of the documentary. In the questionnaire we decided to figure out a few key factors in order to have successful results in order to identify the target audience. Age (to figure out whether or not the product is suitable for certain ages), gender (to figure out what particular age prefers this topic), culture & ethnicity (to find out if people around the world or different countries are interested) were all considered and added, this enhanced the questions because it gave us a better understanding of the audience and enabled us to progress forward with the documentary. Interview questions were also created as an alternate form or primary research. However, we decided to use this as well, we interviewed a science teacher who provided amazing facts about space, this gave the documentary a sense of professionalism because brilliant knowledge and optimism provided.

In my opinion I think the documentary turned out fantastic, because it had it all; excitement, anticipation, fun and great visuals; but there are certain parts of the video which I was particularly proud of. I'm really proud of the fact that the documentary contains high quality shots, with immaculate angles to emphasis it, such as the actor explaining key bits of the documentary along with the CGI implemented in. The CGI was a real winner in this documentary, mainly because of the smooth motions throughout the video, when mixed with the actual footage it provided much more excitement because of the uniqueness. I'm also very proud of the music that we used in our documentary, because of the fact that it gave the video so much life and enhancements by essentially giving the documentary more rhythm as went on, allowing the video to become very watchable and entertaining.

Some enhancements are definitely needed for sure. Some clips in the video lacked great quality compared to the rest, this was due to the colour correction on the camera; it made the shots look really bright, which is quite a let-down because some scenes looked amazing due to the balance. None the less it didn't really affect the video too much. The audio could also use improvements especially the voice over, it was really quiet at times, and the music overlapped the audio due to the increased volume. Especially when the drone crashed as I was doing a voiceover; it was almost impossible to hear what I was saying due to the static and mixture of audio. Another setback was definitely the interviews, the information was really good, but the interviews were just continuous, with no cut outs or filler shots making quite difficult to watch without wanting to skip to the next scene.

Once the documentary was edited and rendered we uploaded it on YouTube and embedded it on our blogs, this allowed me to receive helpful feedback from my peers. Overall they said the advert was really good and creative, however they said that it could really be improved; they considered the following: colour correction, more shots that vary, quality of some shots and the volume of the audio. I believe that the feedback provided would really help me with future projects.

Next time we film and edit we should definitely focus on the colour correction of the shots because it would make the video seem like it was shot around the same time. We should also increase the volume of the voiceover in general, so the audience can understand what is going on in the scenes. Next time we should make sure to improve the co-ordination and order of the clips, this would allow the video to make more sense, plus adding a few filler shots or cuts to the interviews would definitely be a beneficial move, as it makes the video seem much more professional and exciting. These additional corrections would enable us to produce a more professional video.­­

Purposes Of Research

Purposes Of Research

During this assignment I will be exploring and assessing the purposes of research in order to gain a better understanding of the real reason why research into media products is being constructed and why it is essential. There are two key purposes for research; to learn new things about certain objectives, and to gather valuable evidence which can help back up your project if need be.

Research is crucial when it comes to media productions, without the correct research failure is almost certainly guaranteed. The production process can be very difficult depending on the topic as some of the audience may find the topic unappealing, this can cause problems when it comes to gathering research however, regardless of the topic; research will always be the first stepping stone. All the technologies that we use daily have been thoroughly researched and planned to provide people with vast amounts of entertainment and pleasure such as TV, music and interactive websites, all these sectors allow people to keep up to date with their loved ones and the world.

In media industries there two major forms of research that need to be gathered, Market Research and Production Research. 

Market research is a very competitive form of research which media producers must perform in order to gain success, they must undertake detailed research about their target market within the topic, they will have to battle with other industries to gain audiences and income or ask other organisations to research on their behalf, this then allows them to exchange for revenue. Without this process no progress can be made, therefore it will lead to complications later on. The content that companies are trying to release must be appealing towards the audience so they must be as accurate and believable as possible.

The research undertaken can allow products to provide modern and accurate production research, this will produce the most successful media productions due to the fact that it allows them to communicate with the audience effectively. The competition in a way will provide more variety for the audience as new ideas pop up every time, this can prove to be challenging for all media productions; so the main priority for all media productions is to know the target audience and how to gain their trust (extremely crucial).

Market research involves looking at the statistical increase or decrease of data which provides information on how large the audience is (based on the topic). 

• A prime example would be How many people watch The Game Of Thrones and what (as an individual) makes them watch the show consecutively, its due its gory, violence and unusual romance. All these features make this show breathtaking for the audience.
• The Tomorrow people is example which is exactly the opposite of Game Of Thrones. The show only lasted for one season the effects were really good, but the story was really repetitiveand due to this people stopped watching and the show was cancelled, losing lots of money in the process.
• 'Competitors' you either love them or hate them, because they can either provide you with struggles or a sense of inspiration to improvebut that still is not a reason to stop crafting new products for the audience. Market research covers the basics of competitions and how similar products can in fact be very different. For example consoles, XBOXONE and PS4 they are both products with the same ambitions and interaction, however certain features mark the two as rivals and 'different', such as the games, controls and designs. This
• This research also involves looking at particular media products and how they are used by people around the world; a great example would be 'what people think of games consoles and whats their favourite feature(s) about it'

If the audience research goes well and the market analysis is favourable a media company might decide to launch a new product in that market, in this case they need production research. This type of research is done to gather material to allow a company to develop new products, investigate the technology and personnel available and “plan production and post- production to ensure it all runs smoothly. This type of research can be used to gain an insight on the availability of pre-production equipment and post- production facilities and talents for the product and personnel.

There are implications of not doing production research, like for example if a media company did not carry out production research and just launch a product they might not use the correct materials needed for the product which might result in the product not selling well which will be a significant loss for the company. An also if they don’t do the research they might not target the audience they need.

Media producers must make sure that the products that are being produced are functional and possible to release, because if anything goes wrong large amounts of money will be lost, high chance of losing the audience due to technical difficulties. For example The SAMSUNG NOTE 7, this device was thought to be the perfect creation until they started to blow up and injure people; this cost them dearly losing millions of profit in advance. This is why it is absolutely crucial to carry out research and work things out during the pre-production sequences such as;
Audience Segmentation
Advertising
Viability

Audience segmentation is a term used when placing the audience into different categories, this process is done to help the producers identify and target a variety of people with but with the same preferences. For the producers to gain the trust of the audience they must use the common classifications Age, Gender, Culture/Ethnicity and income and social class. These classifications allow the producer to place the groups, all depending on the person them self.

Age is a very crucial category within the media industry and is almost always used to split up the audience. Media researchers tend to use options such as "16-24" or "15 years or younger" etc. For example Warning: this product contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults). Researchers and advertisers are really intersested in what different ages have in store, they are keen to see they're skills, preferences, setbacks, uniqueness and how the progress and evolve as they grow older. Each age group tends to have their unique products produced to help inspire other people in the same age group.

Gender is also an important category for audience segmentation as certain products may be targeted at specific gender groups. Gender groups are usually seen in magazines and advertisements, for example L'oreal Paris, this is a beauty based advertisement aimed towards females, they describe the products aswell as the outcomes they produce.

Culture and Ethnicity, media industries all around the planet tend to publish their products on many sectors in the marketplace such as Television programmes, computers, radio, newspapers; these are very easy to obtain in UK. Producers also try and sell their products across the globe, to help others enjoy the product and also to help the product grow financially. They achieve these tasks by learning about different cultures and ethnic groups, just to give them a quick insight on what they could do to allow people to enjoy the product more.

Income and social class, this part of the audience can be divided according to the income the person earns every year (annual, salary, hourly) this may also depend on their social class. A persons income can be very important, as it may determine whether or not the product can be sold around the area/country, but its mainly used to ensure more profit worldwide.

Advertising is one of the most crucial sources of income for any advertiser when it comes to making profit. We as the audience watch and interact with the adverts this is how advertisers make money, because when we watch, we want to buy. Advertisers are very keen on media products such as television programmes, magazines and newspapers as it provides them with inspiration and also a revenue to publish advertisments. For example, Game Of Thrones possibly the most famous Tv show is watched worldwide and is keen on forming partnerships with sponsors such as League Of Legends (which has sponsored the show for 3 years). Sponsors can be very sensitive when it comes to profit and popularity, the the company that they are sponsoring fail to live up to expectations they will immediately withdraw from the partnership.

If a media organisation is in the pre-production schedule the sane thing to do is gather the necessary information on how other existing products produced their products and how they compare alongside each other. The better the success rate of the other products the better the target audience may think of the products. Gaining research based on comparison within the marketplace is another form of research. For example, XBOX acquire income from their online servers, people buy games, movies and online. However, they also gain some profit from microsofts other productions. They are still in competition with Playstaion and sony; as they have similar policies.

Viability is a part of production research which overlooks the product on different levels to see if its okay to publish. The viability of the product must be checked to ensure success in the future.

• Are the right equipments available to you?
• What assistance will you require?
• Are you qualified to undertake this production process?
• Have you got enough time to produce?

Income, financially you would have to explore a variety of ways to fund from the published product, once thats done you have to balance out the amount of profit made and slowly use the money to fund the production and distribution.

Copyright, is legal right that protects the use of your work once your idea has been physically expressed. Legal protection is advised so that their original material can't be used in somebody else's name. Copyright is a confusing subject, the issues can be obscure, vague and puzzling. Many people that if something is available on the internet, not used in order to make money or out of print, then it is OK to use it in any way they want to.

Contingency plans

PROBABILITY OF THREATS
Probability of Occurrence:	High	Medium	Low
Battery Failure		X
Lack of studio time	X
Loss of footage			X
Injuries			X
Lack of contribution		X
Cold / Frost / Snow			X
Group fall out			X
Rain	X
Distractions from people	X
Fire			X
Destroyed equipment		X
Progress loss			X
Power Loss / Outage			X
Success	X

Archive footage clearance

Archive Footage Copyright Clearance

25 Paddington Green, London W2 1NB

16/01/17

Dear David Peterson:

I request permission to use the time-lapsed video of the Earth for my college project:

The project is a documentary based of anything that we want, me and my group decided to talk about space and we would really appreciate it if you grant us permission to use your footage as archive.

  A photocopy of the material is enclosed.

I WISH TO USE THIS MATERIAL IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER:

Title: Space                                                                                          

Total number of students: 4 students

This footage will be used to give the audience an insight of what the Earth actually looks like from space.

Dates/Duration of use: 16/01/17 - 24/02/17

If you do not control the world rights to the requested material, please specify here any additional source from whom permission must be obtained: __________________________________________________.

Thank you for your prompt consideration of this request. For your convenience, a release form is provided below.

Sincerely,

[M.Hastie]

[Max Hastie]

[07896754461]

RELEASE FORM

  Permission is granted for the use requested above.

  Permission is not granted for the use requested above, for the following reason(s): 

_DPeters________________________________                          __18/01/17____________

Signature                                                                                 Date

Equipment/Resource list

Equipment/resources list

N.O	Equipment/Resources	USE	Availability	Successful
1	Lumix point and shot	To record the necessary footage in order to complete our space documentary.	100%	Yes
2	Roland Recorder	To record small bits of audio in order to progress forward.	96%	No
3	The Studio (mic, mixer)	To record large amounts of audio for large scenes in our documentary.	60%	Yes
4	Smart phones	To record small footage to see it the colour correction was up to standard or not.	100%	Yes
5	Computers	To import or export the recorded footage from cameras, recorders, phones etc.	100%	Yes