Evaluation

My initial concept for my final project differs from my final products. When I was given the project brief, it was very vague and stated that we were essentially allowed to produce any product we wanted about any chosen topic. I set out to produce a documentary as I thought that was where my skillset was the strongest and I felt that would best reflect what I have learnt. In terms of a topic, I knew I wanted to produce something that included music. Music is a big passion of mine and something I know a lot about and I had put off choosing music prior to FMP as I wanted to save it for my last project so I could put all my skills and knowledge together to produce something I could be really proud of. I chose to produce a documentary about ‘The Origins & Evolution of R&B Music’.

Throughout the entirety of this project, I did a lot of research. In terms of primary research, I wanted to carry out a questionnaire and film a vox pop. Due to COVID-19, I was unable to film a vox pop. This set me back slightly as I wanted to use some of the responses from my vox pop in my final documentary to further support the ideas discussed. I had to adjust and decided to still carry out a questionnaire and analyse those results. The results from my questionnaire helped ensure I made final product tailored specifically to my target audiences needs. With secondary research, I had to do a lot. I know a lot about the R&B genre from all points in time but I had to make sure that everything I knew was accurate because I don’t want to convey a message with incorrect information. The aim of my documentary is to educate and entertain, so my facts had to my correct.

My target audience was quite vague. I wanted my documentary to educate my primary target audience as well as entertain. I didn’t have a specific primary target audience as I think I chose a topic that everyone could learn something about. I felt like having a broad target audience could be risky, as I needed to ensure I bared the demo/ psychographics in mind throughout production and without a specific age range it would be hard to do so. However, within my documentary, I discussed the origins of the Rhythm and Blues genre as well as how it’s evolved to what it is now. Therefore, both an older and younger target audience would be able to benefit from my documentary.

I felt that producing a documentary would be the best way to engage both a younger and an older audience as if it’s made right, can be an easy way to be entertained and educated at the same time. I tried to use R&B style instrumentals in the background of my documentary. The score in any documentary is really important. It is an easy way to keep your audience engaged and if you choose a score relating to your topic, you are subliminally constantly reminding your audience of the topic of the documentary.

The main research sources that I used were websites and videos I think I relied heavily on music films and docudramas. When it came to producing my documentary, I watched a lot of documentaries about the music industry generally and then watched videos of R&B singers and their experiences within the industry. Watching documentaries definitely made my final products better as I could gauge how to roughly layout my documentary and could see where elements like b-roll and statistics would be appropriate.

I chose to produce a documentary, a portrait poster and a landscape/billboard poster. I also wanted my documentary to have some sort of social media presence but I had to prioritise which products were more important. I managed to create a rough draft of what an Instagram profile promoting my documentary would look like. It is not my best work but you can get the rough idea of what it would look like. In reflection, if I had a bit more time I would have like to have made a rough draft of what my brand would look like on different social media such as Facebook or Twitter. However, I am still happy with how my other final products turned out.

I think that all these products together helped create a cohesive final product. I stuck to a darker colour scheme and the same fonts throughout to make sure that it all looks like they belonged together.

I have encountered a few hurdles throughout this whole unit. I struggled to refine my ideas at times, as sometimes I wanted to throw all my ideas at the product but less is more and once I realised how to refine what I was doing, I feel I ended up with exactly what I planned out and wanted. There are a few things I would have liked to change if we weren’t under these circumstances, such as recording some of my own b-roll type footage and filming my own interviews. All in the all, for the resources I did have, I think it turned out quite well. Additionally, being left to figure things out on my own, I had to teach and reteach my self-certain things, but I will always take this as a positive as I have managed to produce a documentary and strengthen all my skills and knowledge.

Overall, I am really proud of the products I managed to produce. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to tie all my ideas together, as well as trying to make all my interviews look like they fit together. In normal circumstances, my interviews would have been filmed in the studio and would all look very professional and the same. This was a big hurdle for me to overcome but I think I managed to put that aside and edit them how I initially set out to do so. I think as an overall concept, all my ideas do tie in with one another, and I am really happy with how they turned out.