EVALUATION

How well do you think you have done? Based on feedback from peers and
teachers over the course of the unit do you believe you have successfully
fulfilled the required brief

In my production, I think I have done quite well however there are definitely
areas that let me down. I think the areas I have done well in are
the filming, and pre production elements. This is because these elements gave
me a chance to explore my creativity when creating a pre
production planning booklet and when thinking about what visuals I want to
present to match my narration. The required brief set by VIIBE productions
required us to create a production which does not have swearing, nudity or sex
drugs and violence. I have fulfilled this requirement because my documentary
doesn’t remotely explore / present any of these elements. I also fulfilled the
brief because I met the interim and final deadlines set by my teachers. All
of the practical work was my own as I filmed almost all of my B-Roll at
exhibitions based on technology and communication. I have used archive
footage but only to fill in parts where I didn’t feel I had the relevant visuals
for it, and where it was appropriate. I also did not use any written work from
previous units, it was all my own work which I wrote myself for each topic.
From this, I think I have done well.

Something I let myself down in was that in the first few weeks I didn’t meet
many deadlines which meant I fell behind from the start. This is because I
really struggled to come up with an idea. I wanted to enjoy my final production
and do something I was passionate about, however I couldn’t put my finger on
what that would be. I had an idea to do a music video and short film about
how rappers glamorize drug and alcohol use even though the effects in reality
are not glamorous whatsoever. This was a good idea and the feedback I got
was that it was interesting, however, I simply couldn’t pull this production off
in terms of finding actors and creating a realistic party scene. I did not have the
resources. My teacher then told me that I should think about doing a
documentary about skype because my dad was on the first Skype team, so I
had the resources there. In all honesty, even though this is a documentary I
could have easily made, I wasn’t ultimately interested or passionate about
it. However, this put me in the right direction. When I had the idea of
doing Skype I was already 2 weeks into this project so massively falling behind
as other people had started doing their research. After researching the topic of
telecommunication and skype, I started becoming interested in the effect of
technology on communication today. This is because I have grown up in a
different era to my parents so I wanted to explore the differences in the world
we live in today and the world they grew up in, and the changes and dangers
my generation face compared to my parents. Another reason I chose to do this
was because I felt like I was a minority in the sense that I felt like one of the
few teenagers who optionally didn’t want a smart phone, I liked my Nokia as it
encouraged me to primarily use verbal communication. It also made me notice
how much people actually use their phones and technology every day. From
the point of being behind , my only way of coming back from this was to create
a new production schedule and put a new plan of work in place to ensure I get
back up to speed with things and start meeting deadlines again.

Do you feel you followed the guidelines of the competition well?

I feel that I definitely followed the guidelines of the competition well because
they weren’t entirely hard to meet. The deadline was after the deadline set by
my college which worked well because it meant I had more time after my
college deadline to continue improving my production for the competition.
Something else that I met was the requirements of no nudity, sex drugs or
violence or swearing. Due to the nature of my documentary it was really easy
for me to meet these requirements. It also needs to be under 40 minutes for it
to fit into the category that I want to enter it into, otherwise I would have to
consider other categories. I followed this rule because from the brief set by
VIIBE productions my documentary had
to be 10-20 minutes long, so it fit into
the category I hoped for. My production
was 13 minutes so I was well within the
guidelines.
How well do you believe your production followed the conventions of your
genre / style?
I feel like my production followed the conventions of a Reflexive documentary
because from my research the main things I needed to include was 1. Factual
information , 2 . Interviews , 3. Relevant visuals and B-roll , 4. Narration , but
also some aspects like evidence – for example when talking about the first
Nokia which has a camera, I included the first Nokia advert for this as I thought
it would be interesting for my audience to see. When I analysed reflexive
documentaries by Stacey Dooley and Louis Theroux something that they had
was facts in percentage form from research. I implemented this aspect into my
production by talking about how the average age of someone with a phone is
now 11 years old. I felt this fitted the conventions of a reflexive documentary
because it really does give the audience something to think about – is it right
that the children of today are exposed to advanced technology this young? I
have also rammed my documentary with rhetorical questions so that they are
constantly thinking about my documentary hypothesis. This is a technique that
I saw in Stacey and Louis documentaries so implemented it into my own.
Something else I felt I did well which followed conventions was including
casual interviews. In Louis Theroux’s documentaries which have a more
complex theme, he uses professional interviews but in the more basic
documentaries he tends to make his interviews really casual, with no hierarchy
of interviewer vs interviewee, it more comes across as just a conversation. This
is something I did in my production by just interviewing the members of the
public very casually. I also included factual information by editing dates on top
of my footage to match my narration, this made my production look
informative and professional. I felt my production followed the codes and
conventions of a reflexive documentary because it was ultimately educational.
Another aspect of me following the conventions is my narration. This is
something that I noticed in the reflexive documentaries I analysed – a mix of
narration with participating in the documentary verbally and visually during
interviews. This is another thing I noticed Louis Theroux does. By choosing to
film at 4 different exhibitions it meant I had lots of relevant B Roll to use when
it came to the edit, which was all technology and communication based.
Something else that I did that followed the conventions was I have a very clear
beginning middle and end to my production. I began by giving a brief
introduction about what my documentary will primarily be exploring, a middle
of looking at the history of technology and communication and then including
interviews and looking at the effects it has had on todays society and exploring
pros and cons, and ending it with looking at the effects it could have had in the
future combined with rhetorical questions to leave the audience to think about
Do I believe I did my topic justice?
I believe I did my topic justice because when I started researching I was
primarily looking at the history and effects, however during the research I
started to follow more links online to then start to explore the pros and cons
and the effects of the technological shift on communication with todays
generation. I did my topic justice because I explored the dangers of social
media use so that the more mature audiences that watch my production can
see what dangers and risks their children could face e.g (radicalisation, cyber
bullying, access to the dark web, online grooming, catfishing) by allowing their
children to have access to a phone from such a young age. This did my topic
justice because I felt like I presented my production accurately and respectfully
by including subjective opinions throughout and backed it up by using factual
evidence from good sources. The sources I used were books which are reliable
because they have been researched, edited and published in a professional
and academic way. This meant that I could rely on this information to then
implement it into my production. I also think I have done my topic justice
because I have explored themes that not the everyday person would think
about when it comes to social media use. This means that the audience will
have more depth of knowledge with effects of technology on communication,
which is ultimately my aim of making the documentary. By also exploring life
before the technological shift it means I am educating young people of what
life would have been like for them if they had been born 50 years prior to now.
This means that they have greater knowledge and have something to think
about after watching my production, and they can hopefully use the
information I have used to be more aware of the risks they face of being
online.

Do you think your interviewee’s enhanced your production?

I feel like my interviewees helped my production because all of their answers
were varied and different whilst remaining subjective. The main thing I got
from an interview which enhanced my production was when a 39 year old
woman said that her child was trying to swipe the page of a book, like a tablet.
I thought this was really effective because it will show the audience a real life
example of how technology is effecting children in todays world. I also
interviewed an Asian man who works in a phone shop, who said he got his first
phone at 37 and discussed how it was more of a social status thing than a
necessary thing. This is effective in my production because when this is
compared with the research of the average age of getting a phone being 11,
we can see a 28 year age gap. This shows how much technology has changed
over the years. He also spoke about how he met his wife through arranged
marriage due to his culture, which is not something that is as common
anymore. It is much more common in todays world to meet your partner
though online dating and apps like tinder than in person, whereas in his culture
there is no chance of meeting a partner online. All of these things were really
relevant and useful for my production and I felt made it more interesting for
the audience.

Problems I faced
I faced lots of different problems throughout my production. My biggest
problem which really set me back was probably the fact that I had minimal
survey responses. This is something I have always struggled with, as I believe
that no one actually wants to take time out their day to complete multiple
different surveys which could be potentially time consuming. I overcame this
by changing my platform where I was posting them to Instagram rather than
facebook. A positive from this is I then started receiving around 300 responses
per question, as I asked questions through Instagram poll and using the “ask
me questions” feature which is open answer rather than a “yes or no” answer
or multiple choice. A negative of this is that I felt that my responses were all
primarily from young people as oppose to more mature , but this wasn’t
necessarily an issue as I felt that my documentary would appeal more to a
mature audience but from these research responses I was encouraged
otherwise . Another issue I faced was that my filming was delayed as I wanted
to film at 4 different exhibitions, which didn’t begin until after the filming
dates. I overcame this by managing my time better and doing tasks during the
filming time we were given so that I could film after this. Having said this, it
delayed my editing process but I was happy to take this in my stride as it
meant my footage was better in the sense it was more relevant. Another
problem I faced was that I was behind from the beginning because I couldn’t
decide on a final idea. I overcame this because I made lots of very detailed
production schedules and split up my tasks day by day so that I could ensure
that everything was completed and I met all the deadlines given. Another issue
I faced was that even when I got things back on track, I left my USB stick in the
library by accident. This was very frustrating for me and jarring but I then
overcame this by doing all written work straight onto weebly or on office
online, this meant that I could access my work anywhere.

What would you do differently / next time?

Next time I would make sure that I don’t leave my lesson until all of the work
set has been completed. This would ensure that I don’t fall behind, because
catching up was something I really struggled with as the workload was very
heavy. Something else I would do differently is pick a topic which I could easily
find more B-Roll for, because this is something that really delayed my filming
and editing process. This also had a ripple effect as it meant I didn’t meet some
deadlines meaning I couldn’t be given proper feedback from a checklist . This
was hard for me because it meant I wasn’t entirely sure on what parts I
needed to improve in order to meet my target grade . Something else I would
do differently next time is to spend a few hours solely focusing on ideas ,
weighing up all pros and cons on every idea I can think of ,but also picking
something I am genuinely interested and passionate about. In reflection , I
think I should have done a music video because in previous units my best
productions have been music videos , and they give me more of an opportunity
to explore creativity . This is something that I can’t change but I would
definitely keep in mind for future projects .