Note To Moderator

Here is our A2 media blog. We hope you find it easy to follow and we hope that you enjoy it.

Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

In what ways does our documentary use forms and conventions of real media products?

Our documentary borrows from the expositionary type of documentary mostly, in that we have a presenter (Luke) who is trying to uncover and expose something (tattoo related controversy, specifically work environments, social environments and approaching age of consent for a tattoo) and uses interviews (Lauren and Matty), recent news (David Dimbleby) and other means to present this truth.

We’ve also borrowed from other styles of documentary and incorporated elements of those into our documentary too. I personally think that it takes some aspects from the end desire of performative mode, in that we want people to have an emotional and social revolution almost about tattoos and that they’re not some evil markings that should be hidden. Physically, they’re just ink under your skin, emotionally, they can mean anything and this would’ve been our end goal in a full documentary. Making people understand tattoos true meaning.


The final DPS product adheres strongly to traditional DPS rules such as column system whereby all text is equal size, same font style and has 4 columns of text. It also features pulled quotes from the documentary that we think would really grab the audience and make them think about hearing more from this source. For example, the pulled quote from Matthew “It’s not an addiction, you want more, but no it’s not an addiction” or words to that effect, I personally would like to hear more about what the difference is, what is the boundary between classing something like this as an addiction and just wanting more. It was things like this that we took into account. What did these quotes make us think and feel on just hearing them alone?  It was difficult of course, given we knew how it would pan out, but I think we chose the right quotes to grab and draw people in. Upon reflection the columns are still not completely equal although we have stretched the writing, we could have done with making the columns equal.

We also have images and pictures of tattoos that would be in the documentary as again, a teaser and a hook to snag people and almost get themselves to force them to watch. We thought this would be a great lure to draw in those interested in art and who appreciate elaborate designs and beautiful images, but also those who maybe don’t. It could’ve been an eye opener for them. For example, they may not like art and they may find it boring. But maybe they like the look of one of the tattoos. For example, the owl chest piece is a very strong and very striking tattoo that I think would appeal to those who don’t like art but I think they’d find it pretty cool as a design.

In what ways does our documentary develop forms and conventions of real media products?
When doing our similar product research looking at different documentaries that have been on TV and see if there is any specific conventions that all documentaries use that are effective to the audience. When we found these conventions we listed them and thought of ways we could incorporate them into our product.

We also spoke to someone from Blue Print who gave us some great ideas for our documentary. He told us that documentaries are big on cutaways, mostly from presenter to interviewer, so we developed that by cutting from our interviews with Matthew and Lauren to talking to the presenter throughout the documentary. When watching other documentaries we found that most of them have title sequences and subtitles to explain who someone is. We developed this by using a text tool on Final Cut Pro X and making a title sequence explaining who the production company is, what the title of the documentary is, we also used sub titles to explain who the interviewees are.

We also found that a lot of documentaries have a backing track with them, usually a popular song, to add a bit of energy and flow to the documentary. We developed this convention by using Rihanna'a 'Diamond' in the background to our documentary as it's quite a young, modern, edgy song. When using the cutaway conventions some of the cuts looked quite sharp so we used transitions to smooth them out, such as a cross dissolve, as they do in real media documentaries.

Upon reflection we could have taken two camera's to each interview to do more shot - reverse - shots as they do in real media products. This could also have been an effective convention to use.

Evaluation Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

http://prezi.com/zkfgthwfz2ye/how-effective-is-the-combination-of-your-main-product-and-an/

Synergy is key when creating any media package. Otherwise, people will not link them together and that defeats the purpose of them being part of the same package. We’ve created synergy through house styles, through screenshots, through photographs and through content.

I think that our Documentary and DPS/Advert have strong synergy. We’ve used screenshots of our documentary to fill in the need for images/pictures, as we believe this would give people an insight into what our documentary would feature visually. This is one level that our DPS and Documentary connect. The second being pulled quotes. These are direct verbal links between Documentary and DPS, which will give the reader a taste of what our documentary is about, a teaser.  The advert also has drawings by one of our interviewee’s and that is another level of synergy. It shows people that our interviewees aren’t just people that we’ve asked to do this; they want to help promote this documentary and its message.

As a media package, ours is strong, with one of part of this package being our presenter. We have an image that we’ve created for Luke, a presenter that doesn’t want to come across as some well-dressed, detached from the subject voice that has no emotional attachment or connection to the subject and is just a voice that reads out lines from an auto-cue. We’ve made Luke up to be a relatable character, a young man who dresses like an ‘average Joe’, talks like an ‘average Joe’ with a regional accent, not a forced queens English pronunciation. Another important aspect about our created Luke is that he has an emotional attachment to the subject of the documentary. Most presenters we feel have no real enthusiasm for the documentary they’re presenting, they just appear to be doing it for work and this was one thing we found in some of the documentaries during my research, it was just a voice reading. There was no real depth to their language or responses. However, with Luke already possessing tattoos and him looking to get more, then this gave him his attachment and his depth to language, which we believe is also why the interviews with him went really smoothly too. There were no awkward pauses and we think this was an effect of his attachment, he wasn’t having to force his opinions they just came naturally for him. Obviously this makes Luke a part of both the DPS and the Documentary given his involvement in both. 

The language in the DPS is mature and sophisticated and the register is as well. It speaks to a more mature audience with its use of language and its use of complex sentences and other grammatical techniques. This was done to show that this advert for the documentary was aimed at over 18’s as they’re the typical kind of people that will be reading this advert. To attract younger audiences, we’d use a visual advert, probably on a television channel. This is because they’re more attracted to visual stimuli that written. It will also discourage people from accusing our documentary of enforcing and glorifying tattoos to a younger audience, because we can say that it was aimed at a more mature audience and we wouldn’t be lying. A message of our documentary is that tattoos aren’t about evil themes. Some are seen as artwork for some people; some empower people and some people do simply like them because they’re attractive in their eyes.  A Quote from our DPS "The documentary features a wide range of interviews involving tattooed youngsters (18+) and the stories behind their ink"

This message comes across through the text in the DPS, that we have something to say this will hopefully spread the word of mouth.

Evaluation Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During our target audience research we discovered that there is a number of teenagers who stated they want tattoos ‘because they look good’. One aim of our documentary was to ensure that people do not jump into getting tattoos that not so long down the line they would end up regretting, and then possibly having to go through the process of having laser removal or another tattoo just to cover up the tattoo they no longer want on show.

The interviewees we used both admitted to having their first tattoos at a young age, and Matthew went on to state that some tattoos he has, he no longer desires to be on show and that he is looking at getting them covered. He explained to us that they were a mistake and his advice would be to think about what tattoo you get as it will be with you for the rest of your life.

The feedback we received about the documentary confirmed our thoughts that this honesty is helpful to young people looking at getting their first tattoo and that even someone who is very into tattoos, and who in fact is aspiring to become a tattoo artist, still encourages people to really make sure they do want it with them forever. Our feedback from the parents within our focus group said that they believed that this could be more effective at making teenagers think about getting tattoos rather than just their parents saying it to them, as the people in the documentary are not that much older than them, have been through it themselves and are speaking from experience, and aren’t just parents who don’t want them to get one.

The overall audience feedback for our documentary was positive. Majority liked the content, they liked the presenter and they overall found it enjoyable.

The negative aspect that came up was the sound and some camera angles. The sound is a well-known issue for us so I’m ignoring that, but it’s definitely useful feedback. The camera angle aspect was that they felt during the Lauren interviews he was too much in frame and she was somewhat lost in the background. However, audience feedback disagreed with us.  Another was the park scene on the swing, some people felt he was too far back and needed to be closer whereas others liked it and said it tied in with the subject of youth and tattoos. 

Audience feedback has been very valuable to us. We’ve used it to locate target areas for improvement, mainly sound, along with areas that were done well. This is the prime reason for audience feedback, obviously, but it’s also highlighted areas that we personally didn’t think worked, but the majority of people did like. An example of this being the positioning of interviewer and interviewee inside the pub. When we showed my documentary to close friends, a number of them liked it. One said “She’s clearly the focus and he’s not too over-bearing on the shot. I think it works”.

Another viewer/friend of ours said that she liked the inserted news story, but again, had problems with audio, to the point where her ears began to hurt! Other than that, during our discussion she said she enjoyed viewing and watching it.

This feedback highlights the sound issue, but it also highlights other areas that was done well. It also helped settle our minds on some issues that we thought didn't work out, but in actual fact the audience liked.


We've also asked friends of mine to take some questionnaires for me so we can get feedback in a different format and on our ancillary tasks. They also highlight things that we can look into making sure we amed if we were to do this again.

                                                                  ^ Cherise Questionnaire

                                                                ^ Lucy Questionnaire