In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Reshma Chitroda

For our A2 coursework we were given a brief to create the first five minutes of a television documentary along with a double page spread for a TV listings magazine and a radio trailer. We had to research what would be in the first five minutes.

I have watched documentaries such as ‘Supersize me’, ‘Panorama’ ‘Welcome to India’, ‘Inside Death Row’ and‘Airline’ in preparation of creating our documentary. In order to follow the conventions we analyzed these documentaries to see what they all had in common so we were able to follow them for our documentary. We found that in ‘Supersize Me’ and ‘Airline’ there was a lot of handheld camera use which is what we used, however it was not a noticeable convention as we were unable to fit the tri-pod in the space given. We also used many tracking shots, zooming and pan’s which were all present in these documentaries. This was for our documentary to look as professional as possible.

Why we chose to follow the conventions of Panorama.

• For our documentary we decided to follow the conventions of Panorama on BBC1 as our topic was similar to some subjects their documentaries were based on. The reason for this was to aim it at an older, sophisticated audience of young adults regarding the pros and cons of the rise in university fees. Our aim was to make our documentary informative like all the Panorama documentaries therefore have involved real statistics which the voiceover mentions in the first five minutes.

Comparison screenshots of the introduction.

The font of ‘Degree or not degree’ is similar to ‘Panorama’ as it fine and

easy to read. Also the use of the white font was for clarity purposes and represents the target audience

of 16 and upwards.

This long shot of the college students walking out of college, and the long shot of young school children working at computers is a similar shot which shows what the documentary topic is referring too and shows the victims of the subject, in this case university fee’s and school debts.

We have also followed the conventions by using a range

of shots like the extreme long shot of the college

building, like they have in Panorama. We decided to use a pan to establish the

setting and remind the viewer of the topic.

In our documentary introduction, we used a variety of vox pops ranging from college students to parents. These screenshots show the similarities our documentary has with Panorama with the medium close-up of the views and opinions they had on the matter with the rule of thirds taken

into consideration.

Stock FootageWe used stock footage in our documentary Degree or not Degree as we wanted to emphasis how serious this issue of the rise in university fees are and how much outrage it caused.

Panorama do not use stock footage in this particular documentary I am comparing therefore we are challenging conventions. However they use suitable cartoon images to demonstrate their point. I think this was an appropriate challenge to take in order for the public to see how the rise in university fees is damaging potential students.

Interviews

Having professional interviews in documentaries follows the conventions of documentaries, we have followed this to make our documentary look more professional and realistic. Also, keeping

the same colour and font of the text shows we followed the house style throughout the documentary. We were also aware of the

mise-en-scene and made sure it was appropriately set and relevant to the questions asked to the interviewee. However, the

majority of our interviews are medium shots not medium close-up so I think that could have been improved.

StatisticsUsing statistics In documentaries is important especially when it involves finance. In our documentary we used real statistics from our research and applied it appropriately. We also had a medium close up of the out of focus folders of all the UK universities in alphabetical order which connotes we thought of the mise-en-scene throughout. However, the Panorama shot of the statistics has a more bold font placed in the center of the screen, we chose not to do this as we felt it was not suitable to cover the names of the universities. I felt we should have enlarged the font and challenged the conventions slightly but the majority of the group disagreed therefore the decided not to.

Summary• Overall, I feel we followed the majority of documentary conventions and the

challenges we made were suitable. We used a variety of shots to keep the documentary looking professional and as much like Panorama as possible.

• The use of the background music was non-diegetic and was also created by the group. This was faint throughout the documentary and was faded out when appropriate. Also the use of the diegetic sounds such as the vox pops, interviews and voiceover I think had very good sound levels and were handled well.

• The uses of fades, straight cuts and dissolves were effective as it allowed the documentary to look unique by having a variety of effects to keep it flowing.

• However, the changes I would personally make would be some of the repeated shots such as books and students in the refectory, unfortunately we had no transport to travel to universities and out of Solihull with our equipment and therefore had to compromise with the college and Touchwood town center.

• We also used diegetic and noon diegetic sound along with a voiceover and background music to show that we have followed the typical conventions and for our documentary to look similar to panorama.

How we followed the codes and conventions of our

double page spread.

We chose to produce our double page spread for the magazine ‘TV& Satellite’ as we felt it was suitable for our target audience and also had many BBC1 programs advertised in there. We looked at a range of TV listings magazines such as ‘Radio Times’ and ‘TV Magazine’ to get an idea of the type of conventions that had to be followed in order for our article to look as professional as possible. When we looked at TV& Satellite we felt this was the right one for us to follow as it was aimed at a slightly older audience and had a serious topic.

Our final Double page spread

Main image The main image establishes the article. Also, as it is a large image it grabs the readers attention quickly.

Title is a typical convention and informs the reader what the article is about.

We have applied a stand first which summarises the content of the article.

Page number Conventionally placed in the bottom corner to make it easier for the reader to navigate around the magazine.

A pull quote was added to follow the typical double page spread conventions and also intrigues the reader by often being ‘catchy’.

Minor images show what is involved in the documentary and are placed in the article for the reader to watch the documentary.

We have followed the house style and conventions for TV & Satellite magazine as we felt it was suitable for your documentary. We have also applied the date and time.

The use of placing an image in a circle is also part of the house style therefore we used it again to follow the conventions.

The rule of thirds with the column layout has been applied to keep the article understandable and easy to read.

Captions were used as they are also a convention and are usually placed on the minor images to inform the reader about the image.

Phrases highlighted in bold to emphasis the importance in the text.

TV & Satellite magazine double page spread.

Stand first introduces the article.

Title conventionally placed at the top of the page.

Show title also used on our double page spread to show that we have followed the typical conventions along with the date and time of the documentary.

Magazine logo used on our double page spread to show we have followed the house style.

The three column layout is a typical convention which we have also used.

Main image that takes up just over a page which we have also followed.

The page numbers have been placed at the bottom corner of the pages which we have applied.

Image captions have been used which have been placed on our minor images.

A minor images had been placed in a circle which we followed in order for our double page spread to look as realistic as possible.

Summary

• In comparison to the ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ double page spread we followed all the conventions such as the title, stand first, pull quote, page number, minor images, main image, date and time, image captions and columns, used to typically build up a double page spread. We chose to have a shorter image to allow text to be placed around it filling up the blank space. I feel our double page spread looks professional and from a TV listings magazine.

• However, the changes I would possibly make would be to change the font slightly to fill up some of the blank spaces and maybe add a border around the text to make it look slightly different and unique but overall I am happy with the outcome of our work.

• We chose to use this magazine as a template as it has many BBC programs advertised in there and also is aimed at an sophisticated audience which is what our aim also was.

How we followed codes and conventions of our

radio trailer.

Typical radio trailer conventions.

• Documentary extracts• Facts• Music • Length• Voiceover• Time and date• Channel

To get an idea of radio trailer conventions we listened to a range of ones such as BBC radio 1 and BBC radio 5. We chose to create a radio trailer for radio 1 simple because it was aimed at young adults and students and felt through this radio station we would reach the intended target audience.

Degree or not Degree radio trailer.

• In our radio trailer we followed all the conventions as professionally as possible. We had listened to radio one trailers and followed the conventions they had.

• Our voiceover was recorded in a studio for clarity purposes.

• The music was created by our group and also was the same music we used in our documentary for consistency purposes .

• We used documentary extracts and facts to allow the listener to have a small insight of what to expect when watching our documentary.

• The length was 45 seconds as most radio trailers are that long and to keep it short and concise enough to attract the listener to watch the documentary.

• We chose to broadcast our documentary on a Friday and 8pm on BBC1 as we felt this would reach our audience easily.

Summary

Overall I feel we had a very professional radio trailer and I feel it sounded realistic. We followed all the conventions and handled the sound levels very accurately. We also used an appropriate length of documentary extract which all followed on together smoothly and gave a suitable amount of relevant information to advertise our documentary. Giving the time and date information also shows we followed all the conventions. We also used transitions to put the clips together but mainly had them joined up as they were all relevant to the topic. I wouldn’t change the radio trailer as I feel we did everything we could to make it as professional as possible.