In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?By Jessica Perry

For our A2 coursework, we had to create an opening five minutes for a TV documentary of our choice. We also had two ancillary tasks; a radio trailer and a double page spread magazine article, to back up and advertise our documentary. We had to research documentaries so we could find suitable codes and conventions that we could use in our opening five minutes.

DOCUMENTARYTV documentaries have different styles. Direct Cinema No interviews No rehearsals prior to filming No staged events or commentary No film lights No dissolve edits to be used. Cinema Verite Hand-held camera to convey life as realistic as possible Similar to direct cinema Used interviews Linked to Social Realist tradition in fiction film Institutional Documentaries Similar to direct cinema to give a fly-on-the-wall insight to day-to-day workings Popular genre which if often informative, humorous and entertaining Docusoaps Similar to soap operas Take ordinary, common experience and look at it through the eyes of the public Fast editing Multi-stand narratives Part of a series and often end on a cliff-hanger Emphasis on entertainment rather than informing the audience Focus on everyday lives and problems Selective editing: some scenes are known to have been set-up Public Affairs Documentaries Most traditional of documentary formats Usually shown by Public Service Broadcasting channels (e.g BBC, Channel 4) Can often be polemical drawing attention to a perceived wrong Significant impact Video Diaries Descended from Direct Cinema reliable and truthful as the subject is filming themselves

Drama Documentaries Explores a social issue or drawing attention to a miscarriage of justice Scripted and acted dramas Theatrical Documentaries Film documentaries released in the cinema A tradition of cinematic documentaries about celebrities New trend for provocative film documentaries, fronted by a charismatic narrator who appears on screen Similar to authored documentary, where the piece is clearly scripted and presented as the viewpoint of a particular individual Mockumentaries Use the documentary format for comic effect by either: Parodying the genre Parodying an area of life Parodying both

Our documentary falls under the public affairs category. Our documentary is an argument about violent video games. However, we also use a bit of the institutional documentary style as we have a short clip of a home video, and some clips are for entertainment creating a humorous effect.

We then researched Bill Nicholls theory of Documentary Modes (2001). The modes are: poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative. Poetic mode tends towards subjective interpretation of its subjects. Expository mode addresses the viewer directly, with titles or voices that propose a perspective advance an argument or recount history. Observational mode tends to simply observe, allowing views to reach whatever conclusions they may deduce. In participatory mode, filmmakers move from behind the camera and appear as subjects in their own work, being visible to the viewer. Reflexive work considers the quality of the documentary itself, de-mystifying its processes and considering its implications, in attempt to make the audience view the text in a more objective way. Performative mode is very similar to participatory mode. The difference being that in performative mode engages the filmmaker in the story creating an almost autobiographical description of subjective truths that are significant to the filmmaker himself/herself. An example of a perfomative mode is Morgan Spurlocks Supersize Me a documentary we watched. Although we thought this mode was very effective, it wasnt suitable for our documentary about violent video games. We decided that the mode of our documentary would be expository as we focus on an argument. We use rhetoric (factual information and opinions given by interviewees) and passes on information in order to persuade the viewer. It has a narrative and a voiceover throughout to introduce the viewers the opening 5 minutes of the documentary. Its informing and factual with statistics used too. We have interviews with titles and our focus is to inform and to entertain the viewer. All these conventions are suitable for the expository mode. Our overall narrative structure used the enigmatic code which is a problem that is only discussed and not solved. This leaves the viewer to decide their own conclusion.

Since starting the A2 media course, I have watched many documentaries in preparation of creating my own. Even though a lot of them are very different, they all share the same conventions. The class spent time analysing the documentary Morgan Spurlocks Supersize Me. I picked up many conventions with the use of the camera: Handheld Camera Morgan Spurlock uses handheld camera with the vox pops, this is used to make the viewer feel like they are there, as he is the on-screen narrator but also writer and director etc, the handheld camera gives the feel that he has done everything on his own. We used handheld camera during our vox pops, this was useful as we could easily walk up to people and ask the general public to give their opinion without the hassle of a tripod.

Supersize MeBanned Theft Auto

The use of a tripod was used a lot in both Supersize Me and our documentary. The tripod made professional interviews and background footage look professional as the footage wasnt shaky. When panning the camera, the tripod enabled the footage to pan steadily and slowly. The home video effect for our camera challenged typical conventions of documentaries. Supersize Me includes home videos as its a documentary about someone and their personal life, rather than just an argument/debate. Other documentaries we have seen dont include home videos. We used a home video of a game enthusiast, confessing he gets angry when playing violent video games, we use this to back up our argument. Supersize MeBanned Theft Auto

The camera shots for documentaries are usually establishing shots to show the location. Medium close-up and medium shots for the interviews and vox pops, then close-ups or long shots on background footage. We used all the similar camera shots to follow these conventions. The rule of thirds is a main convention used in documentaries. The interviewees eye line is usually on the top third of the screen, and is usually sat more left or right on the screen rather than being centre. The interviewee is usually looking at the speaker asking questions rather than the camera. We ensured we did the same in our documentary to make the interviews look really professional.

Supersize Me Banned Theft Auto

Sound is another important aspect of documentaries, the conventions we followed for sound were: Background music although Supersize Me didnt use much background music, but when they did the music created a comic effect such as the use of Queen Fat Bottom Girls the music makes the documentary more light-hearted and entertaining. The music we used for our documentary was similar to music used in video games, its fast paced and listeners get an almost adrenaline rush feeling. Voiceover this is another main convention of documentaries. Most documentaries have one narrator to narrate the whole documentary. We followed this convention to make the documentary feel more personal with the audience. Presenter - Unlike Supersize Me, we didnt have an on screen presenter as we wanted the audience to focus on the topic and argument rather than focus on the on screen narrator. We thought the voiceover would be effective enough.This is how we made our background music. The use of drums and edgy rock bass was energetic and suitable for our game footage.

Researching a topic for a documentary is very important, especially if the documentary focuses on informing the audience. Documentaries need facts and statistics to backup arguments, therefore we spent a lot of time researching violent video games. Supersize Me uses both primary and secondary research. Primary research such as vox pops are a good way of showing the views of the general public, therefore we added vox pops in our documentary. Secondary research such as facts and statistics conducted by other people are also useful, we wanted to use statistics and percentages in our documentary to show knowledge too. We thought the large numbers on screen used in Supersize Me was effective therefore used this convention.

Supersize MeBanned Theft Auto

Editing has many conventions used in documentaries too. Such as: Cutaways Cutaways breaks up long scenes to keep the audience entertained. Supersize Me uses cutaways during interviews whilst the interviewee is still talking, so we can still hear the interviewee talk but the visuals is something different such as the person asking questions responses and facial expressions. As we didnt have an on-screen presenter we used cutaways during interviews but of game footage, this is relevant to what to interviewee is saying and keeps the audience entertained. Titles Using titles during interviews is really important so the audience know who is speaking, presenting their name and their job/role shows their authority and knowledge on the subject.

Supersize MeBanned Theft Auto

The title scene is important for documentaries. We wanted an entertaining title sequence, therefore used scrabble pieces. We took photos of the scrabble pieces spelling Grand Theft Auto and took photos of the grand slowly moving and replace it with Banned to create Banned Theft Auto When putting all the still images together, it creates an animation of the scrabble letters moving by themselves. It shows the pun of the documentary title in a fun way. We decided to use scrabble pieces as it shows the transformation in games, Scrabble was once considered one of the best games you could buy, but since the advance in technology we associate the word games with video games. Its another way of linking it with the topic of the documentary. Mise-en-Scene is the final factor that needs to be considered when creating a documentary. Obvious conventions for mise-en-scene are ones such as: Suitable lighting so you can easily see the footage/person being interviewed. Suitable setting we ensured when we were interviewing people, the setting was suitable and could easily relate to the person being interviewed (for example Ciara the Psychology Teacher at her computer desk in the classroom) Suitable outfits this is pretty obvious, when we interviewed John, the police officer we made sure he was wearing his full uniform to confirm his job, if he was in normal clothes it wouldnt have worked.

RADIO TRAILERFor our radio trailer, we listened to the radio and took note of typical conventions used in radio adverts. As our radio trailer is for capital radio, it needed to be something to appeal to the audience, and reach out to young people and parents.

We started with using vox pop answers, we wanted them to overlap and get busier and busier so eventually you couldnt understand what was said so it was a mash-up of answers relating to video games. We then added a short sound effect of static to almost make it sound like the stereo playing the radio trailer broke because the vox pops put together was so busy. Although we havent heard this in a radio trailer we thought this was an attention-grabbing start to a radio trailer, and will get listeners to listen properly to the radio trailer.

We then had the same voiceover narrator as in the documentary, with the same background music as the documentary underneath. We thought the beat in the documentary was suitable for the trailer too and gave a preview of the documentary. The voiceover started off with a powerful statement Women are hookers. Men are killers. As its attention-grabbing.

The time, date and channel of the documentary is very conventional for radio trailers, we added this to the end of trailer in a simple short sentence Thursday at 9 on channel 4.

The average time of radio adverts and trailers were around 30 seconds, therefore we ensured our trailer was roughly this long too. Our radio trailer is 32 seconds long and is entertaining, as well as explaining what the documentary is about. We used direct address such as Join four young researchers on their mission to include the listener. We also used the word mission as it relates to many video games too.

This is how we made the radio trailer, using GarageBand. The amount of clips overlapping each other show the busy start to the trailer.

MAGAZINE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

We produced our magazine double page spread for a games magazine Game Pro. We looked at similar gaming magazines to get an idea of their conventions which inspired us to create ours like this. Magazines have many different layouts and styles however share similar conventions, we tried to spot some of these conventions and use them for our magazine. The layout is very basic but also eye-catching with the bold red letters. Many magazine articles advertising a TV programme have many pictures on the article, usually pictures taken from the documentary. We did this to give a preview of the documentary using our two interviews with a psychology teacher and a police man. Its also conventional for the images to have captions near or on the image giving some detail about it. The masthead is the the biggest text on the article, therefore it needs to be attention-grabbing. We used the title of our documentary to be the masthead to advertise the show. Its conventional that the headline is a pun, and as the name of our documentary is a pun on Grand Theft Auto, it works well. We used big bold text, the red of the start of each word stand out and is eye-catching. The font isnt standard and boring but is clear to read and can easily be read from a distance.

The sub-header is conventional for magazine articles, either to sum up the article or to introduce the reader what the article is about. The white on black effect stands out and divides up the magazine. Like our radio trailer, we started the sub-header with a powerful quote, in white bold text. We then used a rhetorical question to involve the reader and used your for direct address.

The drop cap is very conventional for magazine articles. We put the drop cap in red, following the black, white and red theme. Above it is the summary of when the documentary is on and what channel. Many magazines, especially TV listing magazines use this so readers can easily see when the programme is on.

A pull quote is another conventional feature. The quote needs to be significant therefore we used a quote from an interview, it mentions violence which relates to our argument. The quote is in bold text to make it stand out.

Another convention is the use of text columns. Most articles have 1-2 columns per page, therefore roughly 4 columns on a double page spread. We have used 5 columns as some of the pictures take a bit of room on the article.

The footer at the bottom of the article is another convention. All magazines have page numbers, and most advertise the name of the magazine and the date it was wrote to show whether the article is out of date or not. We copied this, using bold text on the magazine name.