Video evaluation

For my video project, I decided to look into whether British pubs are dying out. I felt this would be an interesting topic without the need for a negative storyline. Whilst researching I found that around 15 million people, (a third of the UK population), go to a pub at least once a week. As this is such a large figure, it is clear that the current state of pubs is a newsworthy topic to many UK citizens.

The first process in my documentary was research. I wanted to find facts and statistics to not only back up what I would be saying, but to make the sad truth behind my documentary hit home for the audience. I then made a storyboard to plan the sort of clips I wanted accompanied with what camera angles to have with them. The majority of my clips were to show the exterior of a variety of pubs, as I wanted relevant clips that would not take away from my main focus, which was going to be of the voiceover. After acting out my storyboard and getting a selection of different clips and angles, I next had to focus on my voiceover. I aimed to keep it as informative as possible as documentaries I have watched always give a great deal of facts and figures in order to be of a learning source to the viewer.

Once I had got all of my required footage, I then set about putting it into final cut pro. After watching some tutorial clips I began to create my project, I had to: cut clips, use transitions such as fading in and out, add text to my video, add background music, convert my voiceover to the correct format and make the final product sound upbeat, engaging and interesting.

I found using final cut pro it self very difficult and time consuming, and feel in the future I would benefit from learning how to use it on a more advanced level. Some of my footage appeared to be a little off centre or shaky, which I feel could easily be prevented with the use of a tripod. Some of my sound clips were not as smooth and clear as I would have liked, so ensuring I have a variety of takes and back up clips would have solved this issue.

My work would fit nicely in the online market as I could picture it being seen on popular user-friendly sites such as YouTube. I think that by making my documentary concise, it got to the point and would be more likely to keep the audience engaged throughout. By the point of the documentary being aimed at what the public think about the topic it links perfectly to the online media market and the whole idea of user-generated content. My work allows users the chance to give their opinion, views and more on my subject, which would largen the target audience for my project and make it a topic of conversation amongst people whilst it spreads through social networking sites.

I feel my video project successful met my aims, as it was informative yet still entertaining. There were more than enough background shots of pubs, which mixed nicely with the additional voiceover. I was particularly pleased with the music I used in the background of my project, as it gave the documentary an easy listening, upbeat feel to it which would engage the listener much more than if it was deadly silent in-between talking.

Short documentary

‘For my uni project I decided to make a short documentary on British pubs and how they are slowly dying out. I looked at the reasons for pubs losing their popularity, and asked my fellow students why they thought this may be and what can be done to prevent pubs becoming totally extinct in the future.’

(Documenting) video, day three

Before I went about creating my documentary, I thought it would be a good idea to refresh my memory of documentaries and watch numerous variations so I could gain some useful conventions and thing’s to avoid doing when making my own.

The first one I watched was ‘You are what you eat’. This is one of my favourite documentaries and I wanted to work out why I found it so enjoyable to watch. A combination of the topic relating to every single person, the journalists commitment to the subject by taking on a challenge where he can only eat mcdonalds for a month and has to supersize when asked, and the most shocking facts and statistics imaginable is what I feel made it so successful. From this I decided to incorporate the idea of extremely shocking facts, as they would be new to the viewer and be shocking enough to make them more likely to change their ways.

I also researched pub documentaries and found one about ‘the decline of pubs in the Midlands.’ This documentary contained many short clips of pubs, buildings, shops and more public spaces, which I feel worked well as constantly changing the scene meant that the viewer was less likely to get bored. I am going to use the idea of short clips in my documentary, and I feel rather than having a voiceover talking through clips the whole way through, the documentary would benefit from other people talking- interviews,

(Documenting) video, day two

Today I want to find some useful facts and statistics which I can use in my voiceover to capture peoples attention on the subject matter

I found numerous websites full of interesting statistics which had a good shock factor, but my favourite was from well trusted website The Telegraph which was titled ‘the rise and fall of the British pub’.

I feel my facts would raise enough awareness of the subject and hopefully persuade people to treat their local pubs differently in the future.

(Documenting) video, day one

I recently saw an online post about the decline of the British pub. I hand’t realised just how rapidly our pubs are declining, and I feel many people are oblivious to their rate of closures every week.

Although there is constantly news stating how pubs are not making as much profit and bringing as many customers in as they once were, it’s sad to think they will become extinct if this pattern continues.

I think it will be interesting to interview people my age to see why they think pubs are closing down and what can be done to prevent this happening in the future.

Audio evaluation

For my audio podcast project I decided to look at how big of an issue racism in the UK is. After being shocked by the recent news item where a British woman was outwardly racist in London to fellow tram passengers of the ethnic minority, I felt this would be a good, strong and newsworthy topic to look into.

My aim for the podcast was to find a range of people from different countries, as if I had an English person they would be more likely to be biased towards England and not give a true representation of it. To set about this, I first located an Australian and American student who agreed to let me interview them for my podcast.

During the process of my interviews, I firstly came up with the idea to play the viral YouTube clip of the racist scene to my interviewees, which would lead nicely on to how they felt directly after they watched it, rather than having time to think up a structured answer. I then thought of relevant questions to ask my interviewees, such as: how do you feel after watching that clip, and do you feel differently about England after seeing that, however I did not want to include my questions in the audio as it would make the overall product less professional. Once I had got my desired footage, I then had to edit the volume of my clips, cut out unneeded material, add a voiceover and add music to my project.

I feel my final product, successfully met my aims, as I incorporated everything I set out to do whilst creating my project. As it is a current newsworthy topic I feel my podcast would be interesting and fit in the online audio sphere whilst capturing a large audience. The use of the actual clip inside my podcast seemed to work very well and made it feel more surreal and gritty which would grab people’s attention whilst raising a serious point at the same time. Although the subject was covered widely on the news, some organisations didn’t delve in as much as they could have as it was such a sensitive subject, so I made sure to take my podcast to the end of the boundaries so it stood out and took a different angle than other people who had covered it.

Although I retrieved two non-biased opinions on the subject matter, my final podcast would have been stronger if I had a bigger variety of countries and people. It would have been beneficial to also get a male’s perspective on the clip as again it makes for a less biased product. Some of the interviewee’s answers were a bit vague, which I should have avoided by asking longer questions, which allowed more for elaboration. During the editing process, I feel the transition of cut audio clips could have gone a lot smoother as they sometimes sound blunt and jagged. As the process was also very time consuming, in the future I have learnt to start much more in advance so I can have a fresh outlook on the project each day as I found this a key thing when listening to bloggers who had posted an online documentary of their audacity process.

Podcast

Podcast

For my podcast I focused on the recent news item where an english woman was verbally racist towards fellow tram passengers of the ethnic minority. This was obviously a shocking subject so I felt it could make an interesting podcast. I showed the youtube clip of the woman to my interviewees then asked them what their reaction was to such an open outburst of racism. My music was copyright free and I think the beat added to the slightly dramatic tone of the podcast VOILA!

(For some reason it would not allow me to post the direct soudcloud file on here but if you click the top link of this post ‘podcast’ it will lead you straight to it in a new tab.)

Interview

Interview

I decided to focus on the news worthy topic of drug/ consumption among teenagers as it is always a concerning focus within the media. I interviewed Laura about her recent teenage holiday to Malia which fits in to the ‘teeange holidays’ category rapidly on the rise shown throughout the media! I realise the interview comes to a slight abrupt end, I had audio recorded about how she thought binge drinking could be reduced but it didn’t come out well enough to put in my audio

(For some reason it would not allow me to post the direct soudcloud file on here but if you click the top link of this post ‘interview’ it will lead you straight to it in a new tab.)

(Documenting) audio/interview, day three

The next thing I wanted to do was find some user generated Youtube clips along the lines of Sun sex and suspicious parents but uploaded by members of the public to see whether the footage was much different, more shocking or less shocking that that shown on television.

The first upload I found was of what four people got up to on their teenage holiday. I feel that this clip was more unbiased than the one shown on TV as it showed both sides to their holiday. First they can be seen relaxing by the pool and later on they can be seen having sensible fun on a night out.

I think the programme went to the extremes to try and portray a serious message, but as we got so used to seeing such extreme images on screen we just began to accept that was what a teenage holiday supposedly was.

(Documenting) audio/interview, day two

I decided to look at articles about the famous ‘teenage holidays’ many Britiains embark on with their friends at some point during adulthood.

I found a negative representation of teenager holidays and binge drinking in an article in the Daily Mail.This article contained shocking figures of British drug use when abroad on holidays which was over triple the amount taken by German and Spanish people. The article also revealed astonighinly high figures of casual sex and fights amongst British holiday goers.

The Sun on the other hand used the topic of teenage binge drinking as a spread for their newspaper. They focused on teenage girls who drinks a substantial amount of alcohol and has many interesting stories to tell of her drunken nights. Rather than hinting that the concept behind the article is negative, The Sun merely told the story.

I found some of the statistics to be particularly shocking as myself and many other teenagers don’t even take into consideration the effects alcohol can have on us, so I want to use this idea and make my interview be a warning and a message to other young people about how a fun holiday can easily go wrong which would make my interview a newsworthy topic.

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