Creative Explorations Research- By Jodie O'Neill

The documentary will commence on the topic of Online Hysteria in relation to the website Tumblr. The group spoke to our media teacher and we were advised to look into some of the theories that come with online and offline personalities. My teacher recommended reading David Gauntlett's "Creative Explorations" before filming the expert opinion interview.

Target Audience Research Interviews - By Jodie O'Neill

Target Audience Planning- By Jodie O'Neill

As a group we decided to plan our target audience interviews to research into their hobbies and views towards documentaries.

Blog Feedback Update- By Jodie O'Neill

Filming Update- By Jodie O'Neill

On Saturday we finished the first interview. This interview relates to a specific account of a personal experience with the Tumblr website and how it has effected life both online and offline.

Next week the second interview will be filmed, were I will ask an experts opinion towards the online hysteria created by the Tumblr community. These two interview help to portray the different view between an expert and a personal user.

 

 

The Day Kennedy Died - ITV1 Documentary- By Jodie O'Neill

An account of events in Dallas surrounding President Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963. Featuring interviews with people who were there and rarely-seen archive footage. - https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/the-day-kennedy-died/series-1/episode-1-the-day-kennedy-died

This year is the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy and I thought it would be interesting to research into ITV1's documentary which investigates into Kennedy's assignation. The documentary was aired on the Thursday 14th November 2013 and the duration was 1 hour 15 minutes. The narrator was Kevin Spacey. Spacey's vision was to “through the memories of those who played a part in the events”.


The documentary itself if of a expository and reflexive nature. The documentarian does not appear on screen throughout the whole episode but his voice overs are featured to address the audience to explain each factor of the visible footage, as well as keeping a strong sense of chronological continuity. The male voiceover usually takes place while archive footage is visible on screen. This helps to bring a sense of realism to the audience, as well as spreading the message of the documentary: that the assassination of Kennedy in 1963 was a key turning point in history.

The documentary can also be described as reflexive. Although the subject matter is factual, the content is presented in an emotional an expressive manner. However, unlike most reflexive documentaries, the documentarian does not have an "anti-realist" approach. The documentary does contain various viewpoints from the interviewees to what happened on Kennedy's last day and to what they think was the most significant moment, for example, the bodyguard for Jackie Kennedy described it as the "end of innocence."

The Telegraph Newspaper online criticised the documentary by commenting,

The language, too, could be clichéd at times, as Spacey talked about Kennedy, “the darling of the world’s media”, and his “glamorous style icon wife Jackie”.

However, later on in the article it praised the documentary by stating,

Yet the documentary sensibly navigated us away from conspiracy theories, sticking instead to providing commentary to accompany haunting archive footage of the President giving his very last speech less than four hours before he was shot.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10450381/The-Day-Kennedy-Died-ITV-review.html

The construction of the documentary is dominated by mid shots of interviewees and sources of rarely seen before archive footage. The use of voiceover helps to bring all these aspects together in order for the sequence to make sense. The selected archive footage has been carefully picked to supply a detailed and correct account to what exactly happened on the day that Kenned died, without addressing too many conspiracy theories. The documentarian is not visible at all, including the interview shots. Spacey himself does not directly ask the questions but allows the interviewees to express their views and personal accounts.

 

 

Location Shots - Kira Interview- By Jodie O'Neill

 

As a group we had to decide on which location to use to film the Kira interview. Anna and I both offered to use our desks. We both took pictures of each desk and decided to use Anna's desk, (Pictures 3-6) as the background and desk had more room.

 

 

 

 

Filming Planning - By Jodie O'Neill

Setting Up Interview Shot - Video

Voice Recording Of Interview Rehearsal- By Jodie O'Neill

Letter Requesting Interview - By Our Media Group

 

Kira Jones,

We are writing to request an interview concerning your use of the social networking site Tumblr for use in our A level Media Studies documentary. The documentary, titled ‘Internet Culture: Online Hysteria’, is one episode of a series about Internet culture, with this episode looking closer at fan communities online. The interview will cover your own use of the site, as well as your opinions regarding the different communities on the website.

We would also like to request permission to use screen capture footage of your blog, to be edited into the final interview. The purpose of this is to provide viewers with a visual representation of a typical Tumblr blog, as well as to better reinforce the points you may discuss in the interview.

The documentary will go towards our final A level grades in Media Studies. As such, the footage will only be used for educational purposes, and will not be broadcast publicly. However, the final product will be uploaded to YouTube, as per the requirements of the exam board. If this or any of the above would be an issue, please inform us and we will arrange a way to work around this issue. Since this is a no-budget production, we would have to unfortunately request that you would agree to the interview free of charge.

If you would be happy to partake in the interview for our documentary, please reply to this email in order to discuss any concerns or questions you may have and to hopefully arrange an interview date.

 Many thanks and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Tom Barden                                                                                                      
Josh Endersby                                                                                                  
Anna Ingoldsby
Jodie O’Neill

Evidence - Watching Recorded Footage- By Jodie O'Neill

Evidence Of Shot Planning- By Jodie O'Neill

 

Lighting & Sound- By Jodie O'Neill

The outside sections of the documentary are filmed in daylight in order to obtain clear visibility of the outside locations of Kira Jones' house, the office, the documentarians' car and the residential street. We chose quite locations to ensure that the sound quality was good. Also, the high quality microphone helped to create great sound. The canon camera portrays the documentary in 1080p definition.

The lighting inside Kira Jones' bedroom is quite dark but yet visible. This was done on purpose as most teenagers have dark bedrooms which is a stereotypical representation. The office interview is much brighter, as this is the usual setting for a professional location.

We used a microphone attached to the canon camera to ask the interviewees different questions. This helped to improve the sound quality of the documentary.

Saturday Filming Plan- By Jodie O'Neill

Interview Questions - Draft- By Jodie O'Neill & Anna Ingoldsby

Props- By Jodie O'Neill

All props used within the documentary have been included to represent each individual on the screen. The car is used to show that the documentarian is travelling between two different opinions of the social site Tumblr. This prop is commonly used throughout many documentaries.

The use of the computer in the Kira Jones interview is important as that is the device that Jones' uses to gain access to Tumblr. Also, a computer is present in the Mr Preston interview. This highlights that even though both interviewees have different points, the main debate of Tumblr is only accessible online.

The pictures on the wall in Jones' bedroom helps to reflect the creative side of an average Tumblr user.

Costume Decisions - By Jodie O'Neill

The documentarian will be wearing smart, yet casual clothes in order to reflect her age and to represent the target audience. The documentarian is wearing mostly dark clothes and is dressed in a semi-formal way. This is the way in which most documentarians appear in casual documentaries.

 

Kira Jones will be wearing a dark hoddie and is dressed in a casual manner. This costume was chosen due to the casual nature of most Tumbr users who are stereotypically teenagers. 

 

Mr Preston will be wearing smart clothes as he is a professional social networking individual. This costume contrasts with the previous costumes and we have done this to create a clear division between the two.