1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Nicole Acquah

Documentary genres and their conventions

Expository • Voice-over • Archival footage/images• Interviews • Speak directly to viewer

Participatory • Archival material • Interaction between subject

and auteur. • Filmmaker actively involved

Observational • No interviews or voice-over• Long takes • ‘Natural’ simply observe with

limited intervention• Audience cannot see the

documentary maker

Reflexive • Audience are made aware of

the filming/editing, etc. • Reconstructions, not the actual

‘truth’• Brechtian qualities

Performative • The filmmaker is also a

participant• “…often link up personal

accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.”

• Often emotional

Through my research I can deduce that my documentary ‘Sea of Change’ is a fusion between Expository and Participatory, as I use elements from each genre.

Using forms and conventions• This link will take you to my initial research into existing documentaries in a similar

genre to mine. The research allowed me to observe and identify which forms and conventions I would aim to use in ‘Sea of Change.’

• Similar to ‘Small Town USA’ I used: • Voice-over • Archival footage/images• A time-lapse• Interviews with experts/local people

Similar to the documentary about Cornwall, I utilised the following conventions: • Voice-over• Several interviews • Introductory shots followed by the main title

FILM

Developing forms and conventions • Many documentaries either focus largely on the filmmaker-viewer relationship, or entirely

use a voice-over.

• However, I was really attracted to the idea of utilising both, and so use direct speech at the beginning and end of my documentary, and voice-over for the main body.

• My focus group gave very positive feedback and thought that starting and finishing my documentary as I did was highly successful. In this way I developed the traditional forms/conventions to give my documentary a more unique standpoint.

FILM

Challenging Forms and Conventions

I feel my documentary mainly used and developed existing forms/conventions of the documentary, rather than challenged them. However, my use of music was very different to any of the documentaries of the same genre that I researched. Many documentaries with a historical focus use historical music and/or soundscapes. However, my documentary has a focus on how the past develops into the future, and so I used a wide variety of music, such as:

• Piano Sonata no. 11 in A, K. 331, Mov. 3 (Mozart) • Little Red Rooster (Rolling Stones) • I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (Arr. Adam Ramet) • Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol) • In Da Club (50 Cent) • Party Rock Anthem (LMFAO)

Music is usually used to reflect the tone/mood of a documentary, but most documentaries do not use such a wide collection of music, especially in a short space of time. However, I felt that using different genres of music from different times would not only appeal to a wider audience, but really reflect the theme of my documentary. Despite this, I made my focus group fill out a questionnaire and 100% reported that they felt the music was well-chosen and not confusing or overwhelming.

FILM

Forms and Conventions of a Poster • A large title to attract attention

• Age certificate

• The ‘triangle of interest.’

• An indication of the release date (i.e. coming soon, out February 22nd, in cinemas now…)

• The headlining actors/filmmaker/production companies/credits.

• Critical acclaim

• Use of colours to suggest genre/themes

• A tagline

POSTER

Tagline

Unidentified main character creates intrigue.

Quote/recommendation

Existing Posters

List of production companies

Two separate images/themes

Font reflects the location and background

A quote directly relating to the film

Tagline

List of productioncompanies

Two contrasting images

Quote from an expert

Quote directly relating to the film

POSTER

Using forms/conventionsPOSTER

Quote about the film, from an established director, encouraging target audience to view it.

Bold title

A tagline

List of major production companies.

The sea as the background, clearly linking in with the title/theme of film.

Iconic colours. I.e. Blue = the sea/locationBlack & White = common for historical documentaries.

Attention immediately drawn to the ‘main person’ Creates intrigue.

Utilising the triangle of interest

Developing/Challenging Forms & Conventions

I purposely went for a much more sparse look with my documentary poster. My premise for my film is very simple – a look at the past & a look at the present. Therefore, although I decided to present different time zones through colour, I kept my poster very uncluttered. I feel this slightly more minimalistic approach is effective. It will stand out to viewers and create more intrigue because it is quite unconventional.

Also, many posters will have the film title capitalised and in bold, WHITE letters to attract attention. I still wanted a clear, eye-catching title, and so developed on the convention by having a bold, red , but sans-serif font. The effect of my typography is that is now symbolises the waves of the ‘sea’ matching not only the title but the background.

POSTER

Codes and Conventions of Film Reviews

• Primary Image

• Secondary image

• Star rating

• Recommendation

• Article/main review (in columns)

• Important information; plot overview, certificate, etc.

REVIEW PAGE

Existing Film Reviews In my research I had a look at an actual copy of Sight & Sound. In addition, click this link to see some extra research I did into Empire/Sight & Sound

REVIEW PAEGE

As I discovered from my research, Sight & Sound tend to use few pictures, columns of review and synopsis, alongside a detailed outline of the synopsis and production listings

Level 4 • In addition to Sight & Sound, I

found a magazine that circulates in just the Southend area. They are dedicated to promoting ‘arts and entertainment’ and have featured film reviews and interviews with film directors. I believe that they would be ideal for publishing a review on my film about Southend.

• Click the link to see Level 4’s website and previous editions.

REVIEW PAGE

Using forms and conventions

Banner to frame the review

Production listings

Five-star rating

Columns of text (as opposed to one large chunk of text)

Bold title at the top

Magazine name and edition along the bottom

One main picture to represent the film

‘In Cinemas Now’ alert

Single page, not double-page review (as commonly found in Sight & Sound)

REVIEW PAGE

Developing/Challenging Forms and Conventions

Despite the review pages in Sight & Sound being rather sparse, I felt that it would be effective if I made my review page much more colourful and eye-catching. Therefore I developed the idea of having one instantly identifiable photo, and added two more photos to reflect the film. I felt this would help an audience get a much better sense of what the film is about, and attract them to the review.

I also used a banner to border my page. However, within this banner I added the text – ‘Out now! New releases!’ in a bold yellow font.

I also added some other reviews, to give the reader a flavour of the rest of the magazine. The heading ‘What YOU thought’ will also help the readers have a personal engagement with the magazine.

Sight & Sound

My review page

REVIEW PAGE