1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products

Documentary

• The title page we used is a lot like titles used in other documentaries as it is plain and stands out from the background therefore conforms the codes and conventions. I got inspiration for the background from old TVs as we have attempted to use a static effect that is relevant to the technology of mobile phones and works well with the text. However when compared to a different documentary such as supersize me our title poses the question straight away where as other documentaries have more of a build up to their question. I feel this challenges the conventions well as it makes the documentary get straight to the point rather than having the audience wait around to find out the purpose of the documentary. This challenge fits in well with the closed narrative structure as it poses a question and then the rest of the documentary is used to answer it.

The setting we used was relevant to the topic of our documentary as our target audience attends the college complying to the conventions of documentaries. However the only problem with the setting we used is that we should have used more than one as many documentaries go to many places to get vox pop and expert interviews giving the documentary a more reliable and believable aspect to it much like they did in super size me. But using at least one setting allowed the closed narrative structure to shine through as it gave us opportunities to obtain interviews giving us answers to the question posed at the beginning.

I feel we used a good amount of archival footage and relevant footage as all example used were directly related to our topic therefore complying to the conventions. The archival footage also enforced our binary oppositions theory a “good vs evil” as it showed the positives and negatives of our topic allowing the audience to see both sides of the argument so they can get their own mind made up and allow us to answer the questions using interviews. Super size me also uses archival footage to show relevant information and footage between clips much like we did in our

• The fonts we used in the documentary are very reliable as they don’t blend with the background colours making them easy for the audience to read. This is a common convention used in documentaries and I feel that our attempt has gone very well. Other documentaries like super size me uses fonts to display information and text helping them understand and follow the documentary easily.

The background we used for our stats is a time lapse of people shopping on a high street as it is more interesting than just a plain background and is commonly used in documentaries. The font is the same style and colour as all the text throughout the documentary so it is consistent. We researched relevant statistics that show both sides of the argument and gave enough time for the audience to read through and understand them all. The same thing happens in super size me however they have a more complicated animation for their statistics which makes it easier for the audience to understand as they use suitable graphs to display them. We should have thought about doing this and integrated it with our documentary

• We didn’t massively edit the background in our documentary as we anted to keep it simple. The most noticeable edit we did was the blur on the time lapse other than that it was minor things like sharpen and lighting levels. Using these simple features made the documentary simple but professional giving on overall better look. Most if not all low budget documentaries use minimal effects and edits where as bigger budget ones like super size me uses animations as well as simple edits. Super size me uses a blur very similar to ours showing that our documentary is up to a high quality.

• We used a number of vox pop interviews to get as many views from the target audience as possible to make the documentary more believable so it will have more of an impact on the target audience. All vox pops are within the target audience age range making them a suitable interviewee and the answers are relevant to the topic. Super size me does the same thing as they ask people that eat the type of food they are talking about so they have a valid opinion on the subject. Vox pop interview are one of the most important aspects of documentaries which explains the common use of them making it fundamental we included several in ours

Expert interviews give the audience an expert view and opinion on the topic so they may be able to get a different aspect of the topic addressed that wouldn’t be by voxpops. I think the setup and the background with mobile phones on the computer screen is relevant and professional as it gives the interviewee a more specialist look making what they say more believable. Expert interviews are a very common convention used in practically all documentaries therefore it is vital that we included two in ours

Double Page Spread

Our magazine includes most of the codes and conventions that are common in double page spreads including; rule of thirds, pull quotes, coloumns, drop caps, main title, plug in, water mark and a boarder. This allows our magazine to seem more professional and of a higher quality as the audience are a custom to seeing magazines laid out in the same way. I feel the overall look of our magazine works well with the feel of the documentary and radio trailer and they complement each other well.

Radio Trailer

• Our radio trailer uses a compilation of audio files of vox pop interviews answering the question “how often do you use your mobile phone?” and a voice over stating all the statistics and information the audience would need. Lots of radio trailers do the same thing so that it incises the audience to listen to find out the answer making the radio trailer advertise better and informs the audience sufficiently on the documentary.

• Our trailer also uses a simple consistent sound track that allows the audience to concentrate on the voice over so they can hear all the relevant information.

• The length of our radio trailer is perfect as generally they are around 30-40 seconds so ours fits perfectly with 37. the radio trailer needs to be short so that the audience don’t get bored but also get all the information and necessities across to them.

• Most if not all radio trailers do these codes and conventions so I feel our trailer works very well and seems professional making it a perfect advertising tool for our documentary.