Investigative Conventions were used within our documentary such as the use of voice-overs, video diaries and interviews. These conventions are portrayed in real documentaries so it was important that we used ceratin techniques to make our documentary seem interesting. Exposition was used within the beginning sequence of our documentary (Shots of fast foods restuarants and introdcution followed by cross-cut of dan eating) to help draw in the viewer and help them understand what the piece is about. Other features such as nameplates to help introduce certain individuals in the documentary where used to give that interview look. We used documentaries such as 'Supersize Me' to guide us on how to make an effective investigative documentary with the inclusion of the video diary aspect. We drew that influence from 'Supersize Me' as it is a low budget piece and so was our's, so the video dairy and interview aspects really helped us simplify the making process without spending money.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary texts were for myself a primary platform to help promote and summarise the documentary, my poster features a similar image of the painting the son of man. The phrase used in the Greek, translated as Son of man is ὁ υἱὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου, as an idiom for the future human. This indicates that Dan in the future is going to be different 'vegan' as opposed to being a rigorous meat eater, it is a change of lifestyle for the future.
In place of the Apple is instead a Burger half apple which indicates the two messages of change and two conflicting views. The burger, for being a meat eater hence the past, to the apple; becoming vegan (the future), it is a change for the future for dan therefore a future human (The son of Man). The title itself is made out off carrots so it does link with the vegan lifestyle of fruits and vegetable consumption.
'The Son of Man' 1964
'Becoming Vegan' Poster
The double-page spread shows dan leaning on a pile of fruit and him gesturing to the title above 'becoming vegan'. Once again its effective as it links with the main topic of the documentary, dan is leaning on a pile of fruit, this indicates that he has become vegan and that it may be a struggle for him as the pile is pretty large, the gesture to the title with the glimmer in his eyes indicate that he is overwhelmed by the concept of becoming vegan as it is a major change in his lifestyle, as if becoming vegan is a type of saviour for himself.
The audience feedback we received was mixed, this ranges from the audience thinking the style we used was not fitting for this type of documentary,one comment on Facebook indicated that the documentary was based around no real research. Other comments included, What Happened at the End of the month?.
This made me realize that the documentary itself is to short in length and that it seemed
anticlimatic, it does not show what happened to Dan's wellbeing and views on the vegan lifestyle over a large space of time. From what I have heard from the audience it is clear that their is space for improvement in terms of the approach and the duration of the documentary.
However when some audience members were asking 'what happened' I realised that some found some moderate interest in our documentary and wanted it to continue on further. This made me see that if we added more content within the documentary such as showing how dan coped with the vegan lifestyle over a longer period of time then the documentary would have satisfied the audience and not 'left them hanging' for more.(Click to enlarge image)
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In order to edit our documentary scene by scene we needed to use a well functioning movie maker program that would enable us to construct the whole documentary to a near professional standard. We needed a program that offered a wide range of applications so we had more to work with. We used iMovie for Apple to finalize and edit the documentary, this program gave us access to a wide range of different editing techniques and styles such as nameplatting, adding contrast to visuals etc.
The program also enabled us to work with audio files of which we edited and spliced into the documentary at needed points, in terms of audio files iMovie let us play with certain DTMF Tones (Dual Tone Multi Frequency). This meant we could spilt parts of the audio and increase/decrease volume at certain parts so some scenes could have an overlapping soundtrack (Opening Sequence).
In the research phase and when I concluded my questionnaires I used Microsoft Excel to convert my results into charts so I could clearly see what the audience wanted from the documentary. When drafting my ancillary texts I first drew them with pencil and then scanned them via a HP Photosmart printer and scanner, I did this to digitize the drawings so i could view them on computer and then use them as a guideline to help design the final versions of both my Poster and Double-Page Spread. The internet was our primary source of information regarding facts and figures about the Vegan Lifestyle in the UK. One of our main research sources was a website that my GP directed me to called;
This website enabled us to find out about Vegan Health Effects and how one understands the approach to the Vegan Lifestyle.
When editing and planning the ancillary texts, I used Adobe Photoshop, this program helped me create both of my acillary tasks in terms of editing images to make them transparent, this enabled me to overlap some images onto other images. I also used Photoshop to add contrast to images to make them appear sharper and brighter. The 'Magic Wand' tool in Photoshop let me make image backgrounds transparent. When I had the images ready and edited I used Open Office Writer and Microsoft Publisher to create the overall structures of both texts.
This ranges from placing images in the correct positions, using text boxes to format and justify pieces of text so they wrapped around images, using bold and italic tools to make text stand out in headings and using the portrait and landscape applications in layout settings to help achieve the overall sizes of both the Poster and Double-Page Spread.
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