In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

Conventions of a Documentary

• A mixed documentary must contain many different conventions of all types of documentaries.

• The next few slides will outline the conventions of documentaries.

Documentaries

• A documentary is to be truthful and non bias.• It shall document reality. • It shall report on something which has

happened, Using evidence. • A reconstruction can be used as a substitute if

there is no primary footage.• Documentaries are made from subjects varying

from political, historical, to religious topics.

Genre

• Target audience used to schedule a documentary, and what can be shown within the content.

• Furthermore what type of adverts will be used at the time.• Josh Grierson first created the term documentary and

described it as the creativity of actuality• In more creative documentaries the authenticity of the content

can be questioned.• it’s impossible to capture real events as they are happening as

they are unexpected, so therefore reconstructions become inevitable

• Film crew affects through the people watching them, the situation is no longer real.

narrating

• A documentary can use a narrator.• A narrator is a convention as it anchors the

meaning of a documentary.• The usual style is role of god as the narrator

isn't involved and is all seeing and all knowing.• A narrator can become involved in a

presenting capacity.• This becomes a participation documentary.

Types of documentary

• A documentary may become fictisous around an event.

• A documentary may become dramatized for effect.

• Fly on the wall is an example of a non narrated documentary.

5 conventions of documentary

• 1 – observation contain invisible camera, audience is an eye whiteness.

• 2 – interview set to the rule of thirds, a spontaneous interview is called a vox pop

• 3 – dramatization, for effect or when no footage is available

• 4 – mise – en – scene• 5 – exposition, description and commentary

combined.

Conventions of a mixed documentary

• The conventions we chose to use in our mixed documentary were.

• Fully narrated (off screen) (voice of god)• Self reflexive, subjects acknowledge camera • Documentary including a reconstruction• Documentary with defined beginning middle

and end. (circular narrative)

Title Cards • The title card is one of the key conventions of a documentary it can be seen in all documentaries. And therefore it was paramount that we included them in our post-production process.

• Some documentary title cards are highly edited and animated however in our documentary this style of title card would not conform to the conventions of a documentary about cakes therefore we had to design our title cards to conform to conventions our target audience would be used to.

• Therefore when creating the title card we used a simple text with no background, the simplicity of the title card conforms to the conventions to the of the genre of which our documentary is based.

• The title card only appears on screen for around 3 seconds therefore the card must be clearly viewable and easily.

• Our title card also conforms to the conventions of a title card as it displays the name and profession. It also conforms to the rule of thirds which is a convention of a documentary.

Rule of Thirds• The rule of thirds is a convention in which all filming must conform to. 2 thirds of the screen should be filled with the main image (foreground) of the frame, and 1 third should be the background.

• Also the points of interest in the frame must be on one of the four intersecting points of the grid.

• In our documentary the interviews are very good examples of the rule of thirds. In the top screenshot the interviewee’s face is under the intersecting point and she takes up 2 thirds of the frame. Plus in the other third there is the piece of mice on scene.

• And in the second screenshot the woman's face lays under the intersecting line and she also takes up two thirds of the frame.

• The Rule of Thirds is important as it dictates the way the audience views and reeds the picture, as if the main image was centre of frame it would give the audience an unsettling feeling. And it would not be enjoyable to watch.

• Another Factor which is taken in to consideration whilst using the rule of thirds is mice on scene.

Mice en Scene • Another convention of a documentary is the use of Mice en Scene. Mice en Scene is the use of filling the background with genre related images for example in the first screenshot the post-production superimposed images of the ‘Simpson’ family in the background of the interview shows the viewer what the interview is about. Plus it gives the documentary a professional and rounded finish as it looks as somebody has thought of every little detail.

• In our documentary the head and shoulder interviews give the best use of mice en scene for example in the second screenshot the woman is seen next to a cake this directly conforms to the genre of our documentary and ads depth to the scene. Also in the third screenshot the woman can be seen in a bakery, and it can automatically be identified as a bakery. Which allows the audience to quickly realise that the interviewee is a baker.

• This is important in the world of documentary as the audience do not have to over think frames and scenes which would make the documentary boring and unenjoyable to watch.

Narration• Narration is one of the key conventions of a mixed style documentary it gives the images seen on screen meaning and it bridges the gap between interviews, giving the audience the information it wants from the documentary.

• We chose the ‘voice of god’ style of narration opposed to the on screen presenting style of narration. We chose this style of narration as it is much simpler and much more easily recognised by the audience.

• It was key that the voice over in the documentary and the voice over in the radio advert were the same as this allows the audience to feel safe in the knowledge that the programme they chose to watch was the one they wanted to watch after hearing the advert on the radio.

• The narrator had to be taken in to consideration also as we had to make a decision on what sought of person we wanted to be in our documentary as the narration is one of the most important parts of a documentary. Therefore we chose to go with the stereotype rather than challenge it. We chose a woman who was mature in age and had a sophisticated voice. Instead of having a young man with a distinctive undereducated voice. Therefore it can be said that we chose the woman to narrate our documentary to conform with the conventions of the genre we have chosen to document rather than to challenge the stereotype generated by society.

• Another thing that we had to take in to consideration were the conventions of channel 4. as the majority of there documentaries were ‘ voice of god’ narration our documentary had to be also to conform with this.

Supporting Texts • Supporting (auxiliary) texts are a convention of a documentary. The supporting texts are used to advertise the broadcast of the main text.

• For example in the radio advert the narrator is the same as the narrator in the documentary for the reasons I explained in the previous slide. Also in the radio advert the small (vox pop) interviews are included. This also gives the audience an insight in to the documentary.

• The print advert is the visual representation of the whole documentary in one concise frame. This is supposed to entice the audience to look further in to the production or to tempt them enough to watch the documentary.