My Documentary - An Evaluation

My documentary project has been in the works for a little over a month and now, the time for producing the documentary has concluded and thus, the time has come to evaluate my efforts at producing a documentary regarding the topic, of smaller efforts at sustainability, most notably, in our community.

Original Ideas

The original plan for my documentary was to create a documentary that would showcase the smaller efforts at sustainability, particularly those in my own local community, Glastonbury and more broadly speaking, Somerset. By taking a look at local communities near where I am situated, the documentary would be eligible to presented as a "Somerset Story" which was the style of documentary that myself as well as my media class were tasked with producing. To simplify this term, a "Somerset Story" would be a documentary all about something worth talking about in Somerset, explaining, observing or telling the story of a point of interest within our county, whether it be a person, a place or an organisation among other things too.

I had the idea to produce a documentary which would focus on local efforts at sustainability and so, I looked to multiple sources of information to collect candidates to act as my subjects of interest for my documentary. My most notable find and the organisation which appealed to me most and that I wanted to be in my documentary was my college's sustainability group, the 'Strode Sustainability Group' to be exact. My idea, was to look at the values of this local organisation and project them into my own views and concerns, with myself acting on the subject of climate education, which was mentioned by my client and interviewee, Tom Bradley who acted as the spokesperson of the sustainability group for my documentary. Tom's interview led me to go on a litter pick and to carry out research which supported the claims of climate education being promoted and pronounced at the college.

My target audience was (using the 4 C's model) the "reformers" and the "mainstreamers" preferably of an age between 24-40, when adulthood is in full swing and human beings are at their most active and productive and perhaps, willing to adapt and learn. I wanted to appeal to such an audience, to join the (I would assume) environmentally and ethically-conscious "reformers", as well as the passive and impartial "mainstreamers" in an effort to build bridges between the convinced and motivated, as well as the unconvinced and unbothered. I wanted to appeal to our most active generation on Earth and stimulate a response, to achieve more environmentally-conscious living among adults of our time.

I was inspired by individuals like Louis Theroux and James May, who are involved in a lot of shows and media products which offer a documentation of a certain topic, place or community, occasionally participating in actives regarding the topic, as I did with my litter pick, I tried taking the topic of the documentary and manifesting it into something that I could take part in, thus I went on my litter pick.

Research and Development

One of the first steps I took for this documentary was to undertake the necessary research to ensure that the documentary appealed to my target audience and to do this, I needed to look at audience types. I considered the "4 C's" model the best fit and looked into the different audience types and which would be the best target audience for my documentary. After a thorough review of the audience types when looking through all of the different types, from the "resigned" to the "reformer", I believed the "mainstreamers" and the "reformers" to be the best fit.

In order to make my documentary work for said audience types, I watched video essays from YouTube creators such as 'Johnny Harris', 'Better Ideas' and 'NEXPO' as a form of primary research, to gain an insight into how to produce a non-fictional video that will hopefully, appeal to my target audience of said audience types between the ages of 24-40. I studied their style of editing, their narration style and their overall nature of composing and producing a video. I took most of my inspiration from 'Johnny Harris', who makes roughly 25-minute long videos in the style of an expository documentary, regarding a topic that takes his and (he would assume) his audience's interest.

I also looked at different techniques in editing, to name one, I analysed how B-Roll can be utilised during a sequence of dialogue, to cover up any jumps or pauses in the audio from for example, the interviewee mumbling or pausing repetitively. By using B-Roll, I was able to seamlessly jump between clips of dialogue for one of my interviews, without it being obvious at all, due to B-Roll playing over the gaps in conversation and thus, ironing out the crease that cutting up the interview left. Having researched this technique greatly assisted me in achieving a higher-quality media product and the documentary would not have been the same without it.

Target Audience

My target audience was mainly, "reformers" and "mainstreamers" (when using the "4 C's" model of audience categorisation) and adults aged 24-40 years old. To identify my target audience, I wondered who the documentary would appeal to most and not only that, but who I want the documentary to appeal to as well. I knew, "reformers" generally being ethically and environmentally aware, would be interested in such a documentary and I also knew that "mainstreamers", while perhaps aware, are most likely uninvolved in topics such as 'climate action' for example.

When looking at the sort of documentaries that "reformers" consume, I realised that they enjoy documentaries which drive home agendas, pressing a view and a "correct" opinion, often looking into something which is seen as wrong and seeing action taken against it. 'Seaspiracy' would be a very good example, as we are introduced to the world of fishing and how damaging it is to all life on Earth, not to mention its cruelty to so many people, human and animal alike.

"Mainstreamers" on the other hand, being that way inclined, are interested in passive documentaries that generally speaking, most people like, with 'Blue Planet II' being a good example, as this documentary received worldwide acclaim and many people spoke highly of it, with a national treasure such as David Attenborough being the presenter for such an illustrious documentary, which has a very family-friendly and non-provocative feel to it.

I used participation to make a connection with my target audience, as being young adults, I am aware that people of such an age are more than familiar with websites like YouTube, which are often presented by a personality, who introduces the viewer into their video and creates the content themselves. I believed that if I were to act as a participatory presenter, participating in my own documentary as well as narrating and producing it, I could offer myself as a companion to the audience and give them a familiar face to guide them along the production.

I believe that generally, people will react to my documentary positively, but also sceptically which is exactly what I want. By proposing my views and ideas, as well as pre-existing concepts and organisations to the audience whilst pushing an agenda for my audience to contemplate, I create opportunity for difference in opinion, thus discussion, thus heightened interest. Any opinion given in any media product is always a good idea, because you provide an opportunity for diversity in interpretation of your media product and if a media product does not get people talking, especially a documentary, then I believe that the ultimate target of asking questions and receiving answers has been missed.

I believed that, by composing my own music for the documentary, I would set myself apart from others which I am almost certain have used pre-existing music which gives me a unique selling point, as no other producer of any of the documentaries has done this. Non-diegetic sound is how I have set my product apart, in hopes of appealing to my target audience, by adding in music that I believe to be received positively by my target audience, offering a clean, minimalistic and ambient sound which people aged 24-40 will appreciate, due to their taste in minimalism in many aspects of life, with more tasteful options being considered as such, with people of such an age enjoying for example, Lo-Fi music, IKEA furniture and mindfulness, with all of the aforementioned offering a minimalistic and tidy approach. This is how I see the music that I composed for my documentary and so, I do sincerely hope that it will appeal to my target audience.

Practical Skills

Throughout the project, I have developed a number of skills and have learnt new ones too, for example, one of the most notable skills that I have learnt during this project is that of structuring a video which uses multiple segments. To further elaborate, my documentary is the first media product that I have made at the college, which I filmed over numerous dates at a variety of locations and at first, this was daunting. However with time, it became easier and once I attained a greater understanding of the sort of documentary/video that I was after, it all came naturally. Meeting deadlines and arranging dates, as well as being spontaneous with decision making when plans fell through, such as my interview with the Glastonbury Town Council which unfortunately never took place.

I also learnt to improve my skills in balancing out narration, dialogue and background music as maintaining a balance was not always easy, given that certain clips were filmed in different places with different microphones and different exposure to background noise and so, much work was done to ensure that desirable audio quality and balance between audio tracks was achieved.

One achievement of mine, was ducking the background audio of a shot once the dialogue had ceased, to make way for the narration that would shortly follow and while this may seem a minuscule aspect of my documentary to highlight, such an idea lead to a smoother transition between shots, with the narration providing the bridge from one shot to another as the background audio from the other shot had been "ducked".

Documentaries do not tend to require motion graphics, not as a general rule anyway. However, I did experiment with using gradient cutaway shots, to serve as a base for a part of the documentary when I talked about statistics. The lack of background intervention, with only a gradient background in sight with text overlayed on the gradient, provided more focus on the statistics as the approach was minimal and left the statistics as all that there was to consider. The minimalistic approach also accommodated to my hopes of appearing to my target audience of "millennials" and people aged 24-40 who would appreciate this style.

Effectiveness of my Outcomes

I believe that my final outcomes have been sufficient, with my documentary being a little over five minutes long and being included with multiple segments, which offer a refreshing and in my opinion, interesting array of content, all packed into a short and watchable video which acts as a documentary. I believe that I achieved what I set out to and I did indeed surpass my expectations when considering how well the project would go. I was initially very intimidated by the prospect of making a documentary, however with time it became something that I not only enjoyed, but found easier as I continued throughout the process.

My final edit compares to my original idea well, I definitely achieved more than I believed I would when it came to working with clients and meeting my filming deadlines, as I was never without a plan and when interviews fell through, I replaced them with activities and other segments instead. Initially, the documentary was more within the realms of being a "poetic documentary", but as time progresses, I felt more and more compelled to instead design the documentary to be produced in a fashion that would deem it more within the realms of observatory, expository and participatory, offering elements of reflexive documentaries as well, when my own views are protected here and there in the documentary. One example of my own beliefs being projected, would be when I make a comment on how the litter picker I was using to pick up plastic, was made of plastic and I expressed my discontent and feelings that this was ironic. The connotations of such an observation, are that plastic is widely used and is the exact issue which I am trying to highlight in my documentary, that sustainability must be more pronounced in our society and that there are indeed things that each and every one of us can do to make a difference, however small.

The assignment brief presented me with the problem of finding a target audience and due to my most likely audience being people of my age, as I am a student studying media at college, this was something that I immediately felt somewhat threatened by, as my desired target audience, was of an older age and would be harder to tap into than my own age group.

However, I did study the media consumed by people of such an age, by looking at the aforementioned documentaries and YouTube creators within this essay (Johnny Harris, for example) and was enabled to have the potential to get a better idea of my target audience and gain a better understanding of how to appeal to them, which I did indeed try to do.

Working with clients was highlighted in the assignment brief, which while not easy to do, I did manage and the client in question, (Tom Bradley of the Strode Sustainability Group) was interviewed in my documentary and such a scene does indeed prove my capability in being able to communicate with and work alongside a client, not to mention capturing and acting on their interest while also providing them a means of promotion and showcasing their own ideas, beliefs and work. This then proves, that as the assignment brief mentions, I did indeed work with a client and the entire process of working with my client was smooth and pleasant.

Professional Working Practice, Future Plans and Super 8

I worked towards professional practices by not only capitalising on pre-existing opportunities, such as my own noted skills and abilities such as music composition and spontaneity, but also looking at my weaknesses and working on tackling my own obstacles such as keeping organised, which I can certainly say, that I have improved on. I definitely payed a lot of attention to meeting deadlines and staying on top of my work during this project, showing good time-keeping abilities and ensuring that all I needed was looked after when it was required and having been working on my own throughout this project, I cannot say that it has been easy to stay on top of everything, but nevertheless, I have achieved it.

What I have learnt about being professional is that while planning and structure is important, how you respond to issues that arise, such as when your plans fall through or unexpected complications occur, is what really matters. I was certainly faced with issues during this project, lack of equipment, cancelling of plans and issues regarding staying on track, however I was always adaptable and had a trick up my sleeve and this is what I feel counts. When one door closed, another opened and I made sure to take all opportunities that presented themselves. As long as I felt that I had a sufficient amount of good-quality content, I could say that I was satisfied with my work and I am. Indeed, being professional is responding appropriately and resourcefully to complications along the way. You must also retain your stability and not become derailed by shortcomings, when roads get bumpy, like a car requires good suspension, one must be durable and tenacious, deterred by no terrains or obstacles. Ultimately, a fine show of character can drive someone a long way in any field of work. Perhaps most notably, media.

In the future, I will look to further improve on my time management and make it certain that I will not be left with an excess of work to do in the closing weeks of the assignment. A clear head is important to have as a student, a media producer and also as an individual, thus a pile of work too heavy to handle due to previous negligence is a surefire way to lose one's composure in the closing days of any project.

When it comes to Super 8 skills, I would say that there are a number of which that I have showed prowess in. Firstly, communication. I worked well with my client during a period of this project and it has been my most successful co-operation yet, we communicated well due to staying in touch with punctuality and with a persuasive and accommodating nature to my presentation of myself as a person and as a producer to my client.

I was certainly resilient, my interview falling through with the Glastonbury Town Council did take the wind out of my sails, however I prevailed and sought out to find other opportunities, which I did by venturing out on a litter pick, which ended up making up a substantial amount of my documentary. This went hand in hand with my problem solving abilities, as the resilience acted as the propulsion, my problem solving skills shone through when it came to working on the footage in post-production and making the video work when it appeared at first to be a disjointed mess. I went through the entire documentary with a fine tooth comb and it has turned out looking professional and refined.

Perhaps with my efficiency in working with my client, living and working in modern Britain is something that I can feel more confident about and better still, my digital skills have certainly improved, especially when it comes to using editing software and making the most out of it. My documentary was put together entirely on iMovie which can be frowned upon, however I used my resourcefulness to make the most out of such a seemingly "primitive" software, when compared to the glitz and glamour of editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro.

My future planning has certainly felt the benefits, I feel much more confident working with people now and this project will look good on my portfolio of work and finally, my self management has also improved. I have become more disciplined, more tenacious, more adaptable and more organised and I owe a lot of what I have learnt to this project.