MONEY OVER PASSION?

LO4 EVALUATION

OUR AIM-
At the beginning of the production I chose to create a short documentary for Raindance film festival
about the modern music industry and how certain aspects are causing this industry too become
generic. We chose to ask the questions has auto-tune killed the music industry and Has Talent shows
killed the music industry. I chose to work with Ben Ratcliffe in order to create a documentary
between 5 minutes – 45 minutes as it has to be within the medium’s time scale. Me and Ben decided
to aim for this production too be 8- 10 minutes long and aimed at the age category of 18-25 year
olds (Young adult). My specialisms with the group were visual editing and Sound technician. Our
style of short documentary was expository.

The overall length of our production was 10 minutes exactly, this was too make it seemed a more
planned production. Once I had completed my production as well as feedback from James (my
marker) which were small improvements to benefit our documentaries reliability and too increase it
being more conventional to the topic. I sent out a survey monkey in order to gain a high amount of
beneficial and detailed responses on what people enjoyed about our production and what they
personally believe should be improved. This survey asked questions about every aspect of our
production. This production had strong influence from artists such as David Attenborough as this is
what our narration was based off. We also took aspects from Louis Theroux as we have structured
our production this way. The similar way we structured this way by reflecting back on what we found
out.

I personally believe that overall I and Ben’s expository short documentary was very good in terms of
content, I feel we had reliable interviews that benefited the viewers learning experience and
furthermore has persuaded them to believe in our argument of is the music industry now Money
over passion? .

SURVEY MONKEY FEEDBACK-

I learned from my survey monkey where I asked our viewers for feedback on our short 10 minute
expository music documentary (Money over Passion?). I asked participants a large variety of
questions which explore all aspects of our documentary such as the genre, content, style and the
overall topic of the production. I will be analysing these responses in a high amount of detail in order
to learn what went well in our expository documentary and what went wrong and could be
improved. Below is a bullet pointed list of all topics which will be analysed in the following order

 Style
 Content
 Topic
 Interviews
 Genre
 Techniques
 Aesthetic qualities
 Technical qualities
 Creative qualities
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

I learned from this response that my peers

realised what style of documentary we had
created. As seen above the response
communicates that they believe this is an
expository documentary because it is trying to
persuade the audience that auto-tune is
negatively effecting the music industry. This
response is correct as this is our documentary’s
style. This is an expository documentary as the
information is portrayed by an all knowing voice
that we don’t see but hear regularly throughout
the production. We have also aimed to persuade
and educate viewers on a rapidly growing trend/issue within the modern music industry
especially Pop and Rap. We wanted to tell a story throughout this expository documentary by
educating viewers on the history behind this issue as well as the modern day views/perspectives
of auto-tune/talent shows. Finally we wanted to persuade viewers into being more considerate
of what their promoting and whether their happy with this trend being on going. I personally
believe our expository documentary has reflected researched expository documentaries such as
National Geographic Wild Yellowstone Frozen Frontier and Historic Forensic Files Ticker Tape. In
our short expository music documentary (Money over Passion?), we have reflected our mediums
chosen style (expository) against previously researched expository documentary’s. For example I
previously researched National Geographic’s Wild Yellowstone the Frozen Frontier. Whilst this
production differentiates in overall time length as ours is 10 minutes and National Geographic’s
is 45 minutes. There are many similar aspects when it comes to style. These are both expository
documentaries that have an all knowing voice that communicates an intriguing story to viewers.
Both productions have aspects that are unique compared to others such as the narration which
determines the style of production due to the how much input the narrator has within the
documentary. Me and Ben have ensured that our final production conveys the codes and
conventions of a expository documentary because I and Ben have used secondary research to
find out from sources what the differences are between this different types of documentary’s
such as expository, particitory and reflective. We have done this to find out the unique aspects
that make this style conventional such as voice of God (narrator) and furthermore no physical
person who presents this documentary.
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

I personally believe that our documentary communicates a David

Attenborough style rather than Louis Theroux who I had
researched previously. This is because we have reflected David
Attenborough’s style as the narrator conveys the more
traditional and furthermore conventional aspects which David
has. The reason I believe this is because Louis Theroux is usually
presenter and narrator and reflects upon his experience, these
are usually gritty and raw. Whereas our expository documentary
has a male, middle class individual who has a recognisable voice
which is trustworthy to the viewers due to the narrator sounding
relaxed. David Attenborough has a very similar approach to our
production which is what we have aimed for. This is because
David Makes viewers feel relaxed and furthermore like them can
trust him as he frequently speaks as if the viewers are his friends in order to gain this trust.
Through an all knowing narration which was executed successfully by Ben we have created a
relaxed atmosphere for our target audience (18-25 year olds). This is because for individuals to
be relaxed they have to have a strong trust for that person or place and I personally believe we
have managed to do this through our style of documentary as we have used the all-knowing
narrator to be able to do this to increase our productions effectivity.

I learned from this response which communicated our expository documentary served its purpose
well as it allowed the individual to gain a better understanding of the history of auto-tune, how it
works and what experienced individuals overall opinion on the topic is. This communicated to me
that our production has successfully educated viewers on the auto-tune and talent shows. This is a
positive for us as it allows us to know that we have achieved our original aim as well as successfully
managing to communicate our style of documentary too viewers. This is because an expository
documentary’s purpose is to educate and persuade viewers. This response has strongly
communicated this and has allowed me to gain an understanding that mine and Ben’s content
within the production has been highly successful. I personally believe that I and Ben have chosen
appropriate facts that have been hard hitting toward viewers. We wanted to do this because facts
and statistics are normally short and punchy to allow viewers to remember the production and what
it was about furthermore to convey too them that they have learnt something which leaves the
viewer with a high sense of achievement.
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

The response
above conveys
that we have
successfully
communicated
two sides to the story whilst our arguments purpose being obvious for viewers to understand. As
seen above the participant has learned from our production that there are essentially many different
sides to the story dependant on person quoting “Everyone has different opinions on auto-tune”.
This was exactly what I and Ben took into strong consideration from the beginning that everyone has
their own opinion. For example everyone has their own taste in music, we had a strong understand
this and did not want to be completely negative towards both auto-tune and talent shows. Whilst
we do state our own personal beliefs about the topic, we do not push this upon them. Our
productions content was chosen appropriately and strategically in order to inform and educate
viewers with everyone having their own taste of music in mind. I personally believe me and Ben have
been very strategic with what content we have included as we have made this simple but punchy in
order for viewers to remember information on both auto-tune and talent shows. We have done this
through a high amount of content research into our productions topic, we have used infographics
which we personally believe had some of the most interesting and punchy information.

I learned from this response

where I have communicated to
our target audience (18-25 years
old) what did they enjoy about
our documentaries topic. I have
learned from this response that viewers enjoyed the topic a large amount, this is perhaps because
this is a taboo subject which is not often discussed, maybe due to musicians using this frequently in
modern day music making it more of a difficult subject to approach.

I have a strong understanding of the comment

above. This is because our chosen topic is admired
strongly but almost everyone. This was a great
understanding me and Ben both had. This is because whilst everyone may not admire the same
genres as talked about in this production which are Pop, Rock and Rap, a very high majority of them
admire music as a whole and especially with music people are very opinionated. This production can
challenge their views on the music industry on topics such as auto-tune and talent shows. This
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

productions topic is overall been a brilliant choice as we have allowed ourselves to reach a bigger
audience due the subject being music and furthermore because this is aimed at early adults (18-25
year olds) we have an audience that are going to respond to our argument therefore making this
expository documentary more effective. We have ensured that our expository documentary conveys
a knowledge for the topic through sustained secondary research throughout the unit (8). This is so I
and Ben throughout have an excellent knowledge of the topic and this has developed throughout
the production. We have also met talented interviewee’s who know the subject of auto-tune and
talent shows well. An example of this is Ian Davenport who produces music for bands such as
Stereophonics as he had experimented with this tool many times and had a varied opinion on auto-
tune.

When gaining reliable

interviews for our expository
documentary (Money over
Passion?). This was a big
challenge as me and Ben
wanted interviewee’s that
could front our production
and increase our reliability.
Due to this production being about music, this also meant we had a very big range of people to
choose from. I and Ben wanted a variety of age’s to compare opinions in order to find out whether
auto-tune has killed the music industry or whether your opinion on this is dependent on age. We
also wanted these interviewee’s to have a strong role within the industry rather than someone who
can just play an instrument. We managed to successfully gain three interviews with Tyriq Hamilton,
Steve Brian and Ian Davenport, I learned from the responses above that this was a strong positive
within our documentary as we had 3 opposing opinions that were all unique and differentiated
dependant on age. Tyriq was essential for representing the Hip- hop segment of the documentary as
he is a youth rapper within the music industry trying to make it, Tyriq allowed a youth view on the
auto-tune conveying his personal advantages, disadvantages and past experiences with the rapidly
grown music production tool.

As seen above these interviews have made this documentary both formal and informative
communicating a sophistication to the documentary and furthermore the viewers have learnt from
our short documentary. I personally believe both Steve’s and Ian’s interview gave a professional
view on the topic’s (auto-tune and talent shows). This is because both musicians have had a large
amount of experience within this industry and furthermore this is their passion which makes their
opinion even more valid and trustworthy to listeners. Overall our interviews within the production
have been a strong success they were informative to viewers, as they are all professional individuals
who have a strong relation to the music industry, therefore increasing our production’s reliability. I
personally believe me and Ben have managed to gain reliable interviews that were set up
professionally to convey our topic. I and Ben did this during the planning stage by emailing a variety
of sources that differentiated by age, these individuals had a massive relation to the music industry
which conveyed a knowledge for the topic and furthermore increases the trust our target audience
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

has in our production. I and Ben have ensured we have prior to filming researched our interviewee’s
through varies secondary research methods such as YouTube and articles. This allowed us to go into
interview’s with a strong knowledge of the interviewee’s role within the industry which overall
boost’s their eagerness to do the production and furthermore their confidence on camera.

Our short expository

documentary (Money over
Passion?) has many great
technical aspects such as
editing, this is quoted
above claiming the editing
was effective due to the
way it was pieced together.
The response implies that the way it was edited together has had a positive effect on the
flow within the production. I personally believe that the editing stage has allowed us to flow
between points within the production. I have often began narration in this documentary
before the actual interview to create this flow of placing this interview sound over the
previous clip to create an invisible transition which viewers would not notice.

I have learned that there are many

positive and negative aesthetic
qualities to this expository
documentary. For example as
learned from question 7 of my
survey monkey, I found that some of
the productions best aesthetic
qualities were the “unique camera
angles”. This may be because I and Ben wanted to ensure that we kept our target
audience’s (18-25’s) attention. I and Ben gained a large quantity of footage that varied
between camera shots and angles to ensure we had more footage than we needed to edit.
An example of this was at Steve Brian’s as we ensured when filming the drum set were not
just all mid shots. We experimented with different shots and angles, we ensure that these
were creative and unique to make our production stand out more.
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

As I learned from our feedback,

I found that participants
personally believed that our
production was creative due to
the clips supporting to the
discussion. I personally believe
this is true as we always tried to
ensure what was said by the
narrator (Ben) was displayed
positively on screen to help
viewers learn visually as well as just through hearing. I personally feel that I could have
gained better achieve footage that helps back up our argument more. An example of this is
during the talent shows section of our production, I felt that this could have conveyed our
argument greater if this we had more negative talent show footage as this would alter the
viewers view on this subject and persuade them towards our argument more. I personally
believe I and Ben have shown creativity within our production through a variety of camera
angles and shots that portray our expository documentary’s subjects although I do feel that
we should have gained greater achieve footage. I will ensure to do this next time by
sustained research during the production process which will allow us to develop our final
product much more.
I personally believe that there were many aspects of our short expository music
documentary (Money Over Passion) that went really well but I do also strongly believe that
there were improvement’s that could have been made to make this production appear
more professional. An example of this was during the editing process which was quoted
within my survey monkey feedback.

I personally believe that if I could change anything about my production it would most
definitely be the narration, this is because whilst Ben did an excellent job and I honestly
believe that, his narration was calm, loud and clear. Ben’s narration conveyed a
conventional expository documentary as he was a male, who had a positively recognisable
voice and furthermore was relatable to our target audience of 18-25 years old. The reason I
personally believe this could have been done differently was due to despite being re shot, at
times still sounded like it was being read out and furthermore I personally feel could have
been more emotion within this, which is exactly why I did not volunteer too do this as I am a
shy individual and I would feel judged for doing this but Ben was confident in himself as was
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

I in him and overall carried this out well. I personally believe in the future that if we need to
gain individuals to carry out roles such as narrator that we should gain conformation from
perhaps drama students as this would be within their specialism as they would have
experience in reading scrips for productions, meaning as a result we would have more fluent
narration that flowed better.
Money over Passion? Comparison to existing work
Looking back at previously researched examples of short expository documentaries which
were National Geographic’s Wild Yellowstone the Frozen Frontier and Forensic Files Historic
cases Ticker Tape. I found that I and Ben’s expository documentary (Money over Passion?)
had many similarities and differences. These similarities are aspects of secondary
researched professional expository documentary’s that have been reflected within our
production and used in our own unique way.

A similarity between Money over passion? And forensic files ticker tape is the interviewee’s
they have gained. Whilst these individuals are not within the same occupation as ours in
terms of reliability we have matched this. As shown above both interviews are very similar
in terms of how the graphics have been laid out. This has been laid out so name is on the
top row whilst occupation is the row below. The ascetic quality here is that both graphics
look the same in terms of colour’s font is both white. I personally believe whilst Money over
passions font is readable it could have been distinctive to read as Forensic files font here is
more simple and clear to read giving viewers an instant idea of who’s talking and what they
do. I personally believe that in the future I will attempt to find more clear font’s despite ours
being readable, I personally feel this would ensure that viewers have a strong idea of the
interviewee’s role within that production. I personally believe that both productions are
heavily reliable as they have gained professional opinions that relate and have a strong say
on the topic. This is shown in the two screenshot’s above. We have gained a professional
music producer who has a strong knowledge of auto-tune how it works, advantages and
disadvantages of this tool. Whilst to the right Forensic files have a pathologist who has an
excellent forensic knowledge within the state the production is set at. Both interviews
increase the productions reliability as they convey the productions topic visually with the
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

background, the graphics and what they communicate to audiences as they are both
respected individuals who are high up within their specialisms in their industries. The
interviews in Money over passion? Does not compare to the expository documentary
National Geographic Wild Yellowstone Frozen Frontier due to this production not containing
any interviews, perhaps because it’s a nature based documentary therefore not interviews
are required to prove the point as the creators have gone straight to the location (Yellow
stone national park) in order to make this point.
There are several differences between our documentary and researched professional ones.
An example of this is the topic within these productions. I and Ben when generating ideas
were determined to create a music documentary which asked the question has Auto-tune
killed the music industry? This idea rapidly developed as we changed the question too is the
music industry more about money over passion? This is because I and Ben had positive
verbal feedback from our teacher who personally believed we should have a bigger angle
with several sub topics to back this up, this is when we decided to ask the question are
talent shows killing the music industry?.
This was a great idea as we had a strong angle for our production which was carried out
professionally really well. Our documentary’s topic is very different compared to both
National Geographic’s Wild Yellowstone the Frozen Frontier and Forensic Files Historic cases
Ticker Tape. This because National Geographic’s is an expository nature program, its angle is
wild animals such as wolves and Beavers within Yellowstone national park in the winter. This
production takes a David Attenborough approach and focuses more on visual story telling
through beautiful shots where as our documentary conveys the topics narrative through
what you hear as we are trying to persuade our target audience (18-25 years old) that auto-
tune has had a negative effect on the music industry as seen on the bottom right.

Our expository documentary’s content was very different compared too Forensic Files-
Ticker Tape. This is because Forensic files follows a murder of an individual, the
documentary goes through the individuals history, murder and evidence and the
productions overall aim is to go through murder evidence and try and solve it where as our
production (Money over passion?) follows a whole generation and talks about certain music
genre’s.
 MONEY OVER PASSION? LO4 EVALUATION

I personally believe that I am suited to certain specialisms within the media industry, some more so
than others due to me needing to develop certain personal skills much further in order for me to be
relaxed when on a big set.

An example of what I personally believe needs to developing in order for me to be successful within
the media industry is communication whilst this was excellent whilst working in a group with Ben
and no issues arose that have caused harm to our production. I do personally believe this personal
skill as well as my confidence needs to be developed on a bigger scale. This is just a personal belief
that I feel I need to improve in order to work in bigger groups in the future and overall be
comfortable with doing this. I will ensure to develop upon this quickly to ensure that my pitch is
carried out passionately and confidently as whilst I can talk when I need to, I do feel this needs to be
developed and become a habit of being confident rather than this be planned. I will do this by
developing my group talking skills as this should ensure that my confidence is boosted much further
as I will be putting myself into a social position that I am not comfortable, of which if goes well will
be a positive for me and furthermore will boost this social skills effectivity.

I do strongly believe that I am very suited to the media industry. This is because despite it being a
very time consuming and demanding industry, I am very happy with this as it keeps me busy and
furthermore I enjoy the work that is given out. This is because I can’t not be doing something
therefore this industry suits my mind-set. I do also personally believe that I am an incredibly
creative individual who is willing to listen to others ideas and criticisms in order to develop my work
much further. An example of practical creativity is camera work carried out by me and Ben as a team
and furthermore my final edit of our short expository music documentary.

I personally believe one of my greatest personal skills throughout this final major production is
organisation and how I have communicated this too Ben and interviewee’s, an example of this is
when I have communicated to Ian Davenport and Steve Brian through email ensuring that we have
dates set and locations cleared for filming, this was then conveyed to Ben in a professional and
polite was to ensure he has a great understanding of when we’re filming, who were filming with and
what equipment will be needed to ensure that filming flows effectively and we end up with
appropriate footage for editing. I personally believe that this will heavily benefit me in the future as
it will allow me to develop a contacts network through communication with my crew or cast and
furthermore this will boost my chances of being successful within the media industry.

I personally believe that overall that I am suited to this media industry whilst I still need to develop
several personal skills, I do have more positive skills rather than negatives and this negatives will be
improved upon in a positive and enthusiastic mind set to ensure these are developed correctly. In
the future once I complete this course I really want to become a visual editor as I am incredibly
confident with Premier pro cc as a whole. I have been doing this for a while and have a very strong
knowledge of different visual editing software’s such as Final cut pro, Sony Vegas pro and Premier
pro cc. The reason I believe I am suited to this specialism within the media industry is because I have
a very strong passion for the role within the industry and overall I could just edit for hours due to
having a strong interest in the role, I have the patience, creativity, eye for detail and furthermore
high concentration for the role this is due to me being incredibly confident, dedicated and strongly
interested within the overall specialism.