My documentary is based on the topic and question "Is technology making humans lazy?” The members that were included within the planning and producing of the project were Samsia Akhter and Shalini Yogamoorthy. Other actors and interviewees that have been accredited within the documentary are Hodan Mohamed, Samuel Abera and Samya Akhter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELv1wq_uhU8&feature=relmfu
1. How well did you work in a group? Give specific examples.
I feel that I and Shalini worked well as a group as we kept each other constantly updated and informed on the process and production of the documentary. A few examples of how we worked well together are;
- We was together throughout the duration of filming the scenes of the documentary
- We made sure that we both gave our input towards the ideas and information for the documentary
- We both equalled out our narration parts equally, to ensure that we are fair and we both have equal amount of credit for the video.
- We both edited our own parts of the documentary and we both gave back feedback and took on board the choices and emotions of both members.
- We ensured that we arranged appropriate timings and checked to make sure that we were both free on day when we had to record, plan or edit the project
- And we both sacrificed our own time and stepped in for each other when we had tasks to complete and they were unavailable.
2. What difficulties did you have to face in the production of the video and how did you overcome them?
The difficulties that we faced during the production of the video is that we had problems sorting out who we was going to interview because some of the original interviewees that we was going to use were not available when we was, and some cancelled due to personal use.
We overcame this problem by asking our back-up interviewees that were willing to do the interview for us, and ensured that we collected all the correct and appropriate information from them.
Also some of the difficulties that we had to face are that on some days on filming the scenes, me and Shalini were not available on the same days, so we had to record individually.
We overcame this problem by making sure we met up before the day we was going to film, and discussed and recorded down what needs to be done, to ensure we took into account what both members of the group wanted.
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
One of the forms and conventions of my media product is the genre. The genre of my factual programming is a discussion documentary, which will be based on the views of technology. This means that it is a documentary which will be based on the views and looks on a topic. It is also a documentary which will trigger a discussion on the question of "is technology making humans lazy?"
Another one of the forms and conventions that my media product follows is the conventions of the modes of documentaries. The mode of our documentary is a expository mode, which means that it will follow the codes and conventions of:
· they contain a "voice of God" narrator or commentator
· images are used to illustrate and back-up the voice over
· the visual motion picture has editing to help the story continue and back up the narrations
· contains a variety of footage, interviews, stills and archival material for evidence and support
To support the codes and conventions of the mode of the documentary, the video has included the use of a narrator and we have included different scenes/cuts/clips of the surrounding topics and equipment. The documentary also includes some clips of the interviewees and will be cut into the different sections.
Another code and convention that our documentary has followed are the libel and defamation rules on insuring that the information that has been included is not twisted to give a negative impact upon the an individual.
By following the legislations and codes of requirements of the Broadcasting Act 1994, BBC producers’ guidelines and Ofcom, we have made sure that the information is equal, not purposefully mis-interpreted to change the views of the viewer and made sure that all of the views and opinions have been portrayed properly and equally.
We have also made sure that we took into account of the interviewees permission, e.g. protected the rights and identity of the characters. we also made sure that we did not include any content that is illegal for the target audience age, e.g. violence, racial comments, sexual content, etc.
4. the strengths, weaknesses and improvements of the media product
The strengths of our final media product is that we have portrayed our point and topic of the documentary well, and we have used effective and famous scenes and products that the target audience are able to relate to. I feel we have also carried out efficient use of sound tracks, clips, camera angles, media conventions and equipment to help get the desired product.
The weakness of our media product is that it has some flaws in the sound, and we were not able to use a wide range of different interviewees to help us get a varied opinion of the topic. E.g. a disabled person who heavily relies upon technology in their daily life.
An improvement that i would like to make to our final media product is that i would have like to include more interviewees to help get a wider range of opinions and i would have liked to use a better camera and a tracking dolly to help the quality of the filming.
