video update

https://vimeo.com/496458548

website update

 

Final Draft for Front Covers

 

Second Front Cover edits

I have been working on the second front cover differing from the original typeface and colour palette. However, Looking at the brief, this magazine is new which implies that people will not have heard of it. It therefore suggests that maybe the masthead should not be hidden behind the models head, which is a common convention of established magazine, shown below.

 

First Draft for Video

 https://vimeo.com/475418542

Website Link New

https://14-neny.editorx.io/vousldnmag .

Brief

 

Front cover Draft

 

This is one of the first drafts of the first front cover. It takes an unconventional approach to magazine front covers as it repeats the magazine title through the cover. I took inspiration from vogue's Zayn Malik magazine front cover attached below. It provides a more eye-catching approach to the magazine and immediately suggests that it covers more serious issues.

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Alternate Ideas for front cover

Website plan

Website format plan

With this paragraph, i will present the most recent magazine, the issues they are covering and the people in the magazine

After the front cover is done, I will stick it onto a magazine and replicate this picture

Online articles that develop topics covered in the magazine

Raw Video footage

 My video for my magazine website will be an interview of a victim speaking about sexual abuse, especially relating to London, as my magazine is focused on. This is an edit where I have cut out all the unnecessary clips and started merging the other clips into the main interview. I will begin now editing the video to have text mimicking that of a presentor and also i will have snapshots of newspaper articles around this topic along with facts and statistic to anchor the theme.

Second shoot results

 For this shoot, my aim was to get a front cover, content page, and website images for one of my issues. This issue would be reflecting on "Black Britain" with the main cover line being "this is black-Britain" These are some of the potential front covers

First Shoot result

 

moodboard revised

 

Change from Documentary to Magazine Brief

After finishing my planning for my original idea with the documentary, I came to the conclusion that I would rather change my coursework to do a magazine. This conclusion was met after a discussion with my teacher when we realised that a crime documentary would be difficult to film for a number of reasons. 

One reason for this change is that it would be practically difficult to have access to a gang and get permission to film them for my documentary as this may lead to safety issues.

Storyboard turned into shot list

Storyboard from EstherEnyinnaya

Website Link

https://14-neny.wixsite.com/ontheoutskirts

Wix blog started with placeholder images

Front page of my website. The background will be one similar to that of the movie "blue story" (seen above) however there will be the BBC 3 logo on the cornor or on the menu bar

Trailer thumbnail will be featured here with hyperlinked text to watch it and then buy/stream Documentary

page will feature credits where the names that worked on the documentary will be featured

Statement of Intent Draft

Statement of Intent Draft

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and meet the requirements of your chosen brief? (approx. 400 words) 

For my documentary, I will use media language to communicate my intended meaning. For example, there will be a lack of impressive edits and instead will just be basic cuts between two shots to portray a representation of realism which will influence the viewer that this documentary is featuring a very real and important subject to be taken seriously. The lack of fancy editing will also appeal to the middle-class 16-25-year-old demographic. There will however be text edited in producing vital information that is not said by the narrator, for example names, date, information etc, to adhere to the conventions of documentaries alongside interviews, narrator voice over and archived footage. This will adhere to Steve Neale’s genre theory as the audience will immediately understand and recognise this product as a documentary, specifically BBC3 documentary, due to the repeated conventions in similar documentaries, for example, the logo being featured in the documentaries. I will also use the mise-en-scene to set the mood of my documentary. Using establishing shots for example will set the scene of the documentary. This will most likely be an Ariel shot of a rural sea-side town and a more urban city, creating meaning with the audiences as it establishes the place and context of the action.

Product 2:

Similarly, for my website, I will also use typical conventions like a search bar, hyperlinked menu bar and social media links for the audience to easily navigate through. The colour palette will be mature to appeal to the target audience o 16-25-year olds. The website will also feature a hyperlink to go to the main BBC3 website and other BBC3 documentaries that relate to mine – crime and urban culture documentaries. My website will include exclusive features for the audience to engage with the product. For example, there will be a comment section where fans can interact with each other and discuss and debate about topics in the documentary. Some sort of contact, whether it will be an email or a social media account, will be available to direct viewers who have questions or concerns to communicate and interact with professionals, those featured in the documentary or producers – which presents media convergence. Lastly, in my website I will feature products from professionals that are featured in the documentary, for example books and podcasts, to present intertextuality in my website.

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production? (approx. 100 words) 

My documentary will be featuring anonymous tweets from those willing to share their story or opinions on crime and drug culture moving into the middle-class society. This will have been prepared before the filming of the documentary as those who want to be involved in the documentary will tweet using a specific hashtag which will then allow them to be featured in the documentary. Not only does this engage the viewers, it also creates an online presence for the documentary – building more hype for the documentary as those who are not familiar with the documentary may come in contact with their friends tweeting about it and may check it out for themselves.

Planning: First ideas

Draft Documentary Script

Narrator:

Gang culture among young people is nothing new. Youth gangs have been a major part of the urban cultural landscape since at least the 1830s, when Charles Dickens described Fagin's pack of young boys roaming the streets of London in Oliver Twist.

However, gangs have taken on a different character and have moved into areas unimagined by Dickens. Most significantly, they are spreading from inner cities to "edge cities"--cities at the outskirts of large urban centres--and to suburbs. 

Middle Class societies, seaside towns and rural areas are under threat. Urban gangs are targeting these areas whilst moving in from the cities to expand their criminal companies. 

Children as young as seven are being exploited by drug gangs, with youngsters from wealthy backgrounds increasingly likely to be targeted. 

Insert an interview clip of a police officer possibly explaining the danger with gangs, drugs and the effects on young people. – overdoses, turf wars etc (around a 20 second clip)

More children are being arrested for dealing class A drugs than for taking them, as they are used by organised crime gangs to traffic heroin and cocaine from cities to the countryside.

This film will delve into this ever-growing problem of gangs infiltrating middle class societies, causes, effects and more.

Clip of interview with “ex-gang member” talking about personal experience and further expressing the dangers. (20 second clip)

Fade into intro in which drill music quietly playing previously will crescendo as on a graffiti wall, the BBC 3 logo will appear at the centre of the screen which will disappear as model walks past it which will then reveal title of documentary

Continuation of Interview suggesting that the media is a major influencer for young people joining gangs

The glamorisation of gang and drug culture is a common argument when trying to understand the causes of those joining gangs. Movies, Shows and music are some of the media formats in which influence young people to engage with gang and drug culture.

(continued)

Generic research: language and digital convergence

How do media producers use language to communicate meaning?

Through the documentaries I studied and analyzed, I found that these producers use a range of media language to convey their intended meaning. For example, in the generic research 2, "Shame in the game", the media producers' use of a dull, sometimes monochrome colour palette conveys seriousness in the documentary. Not only is this featured throughout the documentary, but it is also presented in the thumbnail of the documentary, on the BBC 3 website - immediately conveying that this is a serious topic. It contrasts the more fun shows on BBC 3 such as "Hot property" which also draws attention to it. All of the documentaries I studied use varying shot types- which is a typical convention of documentaries- each carefully done to convey specific meanings. For example, the close- up shots of ex-gang member in "Escaping Gangs: death, jail, redemption" creates intimacy between the subject and the audience - evoking empathy.

How do media producers use digital convergence to link their products?

Media producers use digital convergence in several ways. The most common example of digital convergence I found in my researcher is the consistency of the BBC 3 logo within the products and on the websites, reinforcing the BBC 3 brand identity also. I also found that some shows have exclusive footage (e.g Vlogs, Bloopers, Behind the scenes, etc) that fans from shows would have to go to the website to watch, encouraging viewers to engage with the website.

Generic Research: Website Research 3

Website research 3 from EstherEnyinnaya

Generic Research: Website Research 2

Website research 2 from EstherEnyinnaya

Generic Research: Website Research 1

Website research 1 from EstherEnyinnaya

Generic Research Summation

Generic Research Summation

Documentaries are a way of documenting a nonfictional event/ issue that has happened or is happening. Theorist, John Grierson defined the term documentary as 'creative treatment of actuality', in 1926

Common Codes and Conventions

• Vox Pox
•  Interviews with people that are related to the documentary subject or with professionals 
• Narrator - voice over/ host exploring issue
• Handheld camera to convey realism
• Archive footage 
• Establishing Shots - setting the scene
• Close up - evoke intimacy with viewer and victim
• Simple editing - not to distract from the documentary 

Bill Nicole's 6 Mode of Documentary theory

The most used form of documentary film is the observational mode, as highlighted in Bill Nicole's theory, in which the filmaker is hidden behind the camera and has no intervention on the outcome in the documentary. This style is commonly referred to as the "fly on the wall" technique as nothing is staged or set up for the camera. I will use this type of documentary mode in my coursework as it fits the conventional mode of documentaries and it will interesting to explore this. However, I will also use the participatory mode in my coursework and this will be done through interviews. I will also use voice overs which is also a common feature of documentaries.

Audience Research Summation

Audience Research Summation

My Audience research consisted of multiple questionnaires and a focus group. In which I found that my target audience usually do not watch documentaries, they voted on a scale from 1 to 5 on how often they watch documentaries ( 1 being close to never) with the average being 2.36. With this information, I realized that I would have to make this documentary appeal to my target audience by perhaps catering it better than regular documentaries do.
I delved deeper and asked my selected audience that fit this demographic about what would convince them to voluntarily watch a documentary. In which all the recipients had a shared opinion - that the documentary have to be interesting. The general consensus of the group's most interesting topic was crime which fits well with my chosen topic - gang culture in middle-class societies.
Also, through my audience research, I found that my target audience is no longer engaging with documentaries through cable tv - and this may be the reason that my target audience is not engaging with documentaries as a whole. In this, I discovered that if the documentary is promoted more on social media and streaming networking sites they would discover more documentaries that meet their intrest and would watch them more. So in my documentary, I will provide multiple opportunities for digital convergence and for the target audience to interact with the actual documentary from their social platforms

Revision of Pitch

Revision of Pitch

In the light of your generic and audience research will you change/adapt anything about your pitch? 

My generic and audience research backs up my original brief generally. Audiences in the 16-25-year-old demographics would be interested in the theme of crime in the documentary so the topic of gangs in middle-class societies would interest my target audiences

It also fits well as a BBC 3 documentary as, proven with the generic research, BBC 3 focuses a lot of their documentaries on social issues, creating realism in my documentary

What ideas will you develop? 

I think I will focus on drugs in middle-class societies as an opener and an introduction to the documentary.

Generic research 3

Generic research 3 from EstherEnyinnaya

Audience research: Focus Group

Focus group from EstherEnyinnaya

Audience research: Questionnaire

Generic Research 2

Generic analysis 2 from EstherEnyinnaya

Audience Research: Audience behaviour

Audience Research: Audience behaviour.

According to the brief, the documentary will have to appeal to a socially-conscious, 16-25, middle to upmarket demographic.

In 2014, Hot Docs launched "Learning from Documentary Audiences: A Market Research Study, which surveyed viewing habits, drawing from thousands of completed questionnaires and a five-city focus group tour, getting information from 3607 people
This was to understand the people who were in the market for documentaries, to get to the bottom of how they discovered, shared, rented, purchased, and ultimately watched documentaries.

Key findings:

They found that seventy-two percent watch documentaries at least twice a month, while the remainder does so less often (i.e. a few times a year or less frequently).Fifty-five percent are watching more documentaries than three years ago. This is as result of not only more documentaries out there that interest them, say respondents, they also perceive there to be simply more documentaries on offer. 

They also found that television via cable/satellite packages are still popular, and rank as one of the most common devices used to watch a documentary (along with a desktop or laptop computer). In terms of platforms used, though, Netflix, at 72%, tops the list of sources (when not at the cinema), followed by YouTube (54%), and then cable or satellite packages (37%). (The percentage watching documentaries on Netflix increased a great deal from 51% in 2014.)

Fifty-three percent of Facebook users have posted, liked, or shared information about a documentary.

After seeing friends sharing a newly released documentary on Facebook or Twitter, seven-in-ten Facebook and Twitter users will (a) search for more information about the documentary online, (b) watch the trailer online, and (c) make plans to watch the documentary.

However it is important to remember that there has been a massive growth with social media from this 2014 study. After seeing friends sharing a newly released documentary on their Facebook or Twitter accounts, respondents are now more likely to search for more information about a documentary online, watch a trailer online, look for other reviews/feedback/comments/tweets, and/or start a discussion with their network.

Generic Research: Textual Analysis 1

Generic Research: Textual Analysis 1

"Escaping Gangs: Death, Jail, Redemption"

Generic research 1 from EstherEnyinnaya

Audience Research: Feedback on Pitch.

Audience Research: Feedback on Pitch.

I conducted a survey to gain feedback on my pitch to find out whether the topic would first of all be interesting and whether it ultimately fits the brief.

Results:

The most common response for the topic to go in dept with was "gang culture infiltrating all areas of society in terms of drugs" etc

How to make the documentary appeal to Target audience

  - Most common answer was to create a social media presence and converging with hashtags in the show

  - Ask for audience engagement eg Their stories/accounts will be featured on show

  - Talk more about younger kids/teenagers being involved in these situations and how this can affect the families, something that people may empathise with

The survey generally approved of my pitch topic in regards to being realistic and fitting the conventions of BBC 3 documentaries

Generally, people voted that if they saw the documentary on tv, they would be interested to watch (7/14) and (5/14) voted that they would be very interested in the documentary

Planning: Moodboard

Planning: Pitch

Brief 1: Television and online.

My aim is to create a three-minute opening sequence for a BBC three documentary on an investigation on gang life in more middle-class. It will challenge the stereotype of how gang culture is thought to be more apparent in young people of poorer backgrounds. The documentary will uncover how this is not necessarily true in all cases.

My product will also feature an opening title sequence in which the iconography will replicate and reflect an urban style. eg London, graffiti etc
Web pages will appeal to its target audiences:

• Primary audience: which is a middle to upmarket audience 16-25 years - Metropolitan Liberal Elites - Sans serif font to make a more sophisticated yet relaxed vibe

How audiences will engage with product

• The middle class audience would be able to relate to topics of documentary and will be encouraged to share their story for a chance to be featured on the website where fans can communicate with each other creating a sense of community
• digital convergence through  twitter and other social media platforms

Planning: Reflection on moderators report

The documentary brief was not an option in last years coursework choices so I looked at the options from last year that was in a similar field which was brief 1: Television and Online.

10 points I found interesting and useful in regards to my coursework in last years Exam reports

1.  wide variety of content delivered in the three-minute duration
2. convincing and stylish title sequences
3. Upper end: Good understanding of the structural codes and conventions
4. needs of target audience were met through content and mode of address
5. technical ability which is necessary to be able to communicate all of the elements of the brief: controlled camerawork and lighting, animated title sequences, strong editing of both visuals and sound
6. Casting is important: needs to be confident 
7. Using a running banner at the bottom of the screen, with web address, Twitter and Instagram details , etc., was an effective way of demonstrating understanding of digital convergence
8. as was having the presenters refer to the web and social media addresses and encouraging the audience to interact via them
9. Presenters were able to refer to extra content on  the websites
10. Mise-en-scene, framing and composition should be carefully considered 

analysis of daily mail front cover

The Daily Mail Front Cover