IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT

USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTS? Question 1

DocumentaryThroughout my documentary, I have used number of conventions that include:■ Re-enactments■ Micro-elements (mis-en-scene, camera shots, sound and editing)The mis-en-scene includes the location, costume and props. The locations we had used were the studio, areas around the school and also the subway where the murder had happened. The characters just worn what they were wearing that day as I was filming after school. It made sense because during the plot of the documentary, it says that the murder happened after school. The props we had used throughout the documentary was a phone and also a knife we had made out of cardboard. The camera shots that were mostly used were mid-shots and long shots. There were a few close ups shots as well. The sound included sounds from the videos, sound effects such as heartbeat, ambient sound 2 and many more. The editing was all made on IMovie, which is video editing software. This involved transitions such as dissolve, fade to black, fade to white and also cross zoom.

America’s Most Wanted PresenterMy Documentary PresenterIn one of the first scenes of my documentary, this is a news reporter who lets the audience know what’s happening at the start of the documentary. This idea had challenged the convention as for America’s Most Wanted and other crime documentaries usually have presenters. To make our first scene look more believable, we had added the text that is usually at the bottom of a real life news report. The last scene of my documentary is the news reporter ending the documentary. this is where the presenter had closed the case of Lucy Barrat.

America’s Most Wanted

My Documentary

The further you watch the documentary, you can see that we have used the convention of interviews, which is what America’s Most Wanted have also used. It is what a lot of documentaries use. The story line worked really well with informing the audience with what the documentary was about. Which is why we had use it. This was the main convention along with voiceovers was the main one we had used throughout the documentary.

Another convention that was used throughout this documentary was flashbacks, otherwise known as re-enactments. This footage was created to match the storyline in between the interviews. America’s Most Wanted was the inspiration for this idea. Instead of using the word ‘flashbacks’ as the text on the footage we had developed it by using the word ‘re-enactments’. Also these re-enactments were slowed down, using the slow motion tool in iMovie. This had challenged the real products because not many documentaries use this tool in every single footage and not even all the way through the videos. Comparing it to America’s Most Wanted, the actors/actresses had spoken in the scenes to give the audience some form of emotion to the story line. As for my documentary, we had challenged this form of convention by not having the actresses not speak throughout the re-enactments. Instead, we placed sound effects (Ambient Sound 2) which played in the background of the moving image. America’s Most Wanted. My Documentary.

Advertisement:

For my advertisement of my documentary, I have used a variety of codes and conventions including:■ Main image■ Masthead■ Date / Time■ Logo of Institution■ Newspaper Reviews ■ Bottom strip The colour scheme of this advert is very simple but

effective. It had challenged the conventions of a real products and this is because adverts tend to stick with the same colour scheme. The reason I did this because the colour of the font wasn’t easy to read because the photograph has some dark areas which is why I had changed ‘Lucy Barrat’ to white so it is more eye-catching.

This convention is mainly used as a promotional tool for the documentary and it is appealing to the target audience as they believe what the newspapers say as it is real content that needs to be watched. The font of the ‘the guardian’ is different to the other the newspaper titles. This is because I wanted to keep it the same as the font that the newspaper uses so it is recognisable to the audience who read ‘the guardian’.

This convention is includes the date, time and the logo of the institution / channel that is distributing my documentary. This idea came from the advert of documentaries such as Ross Kemp on Gangs and many more. The idea of this was to let the audience know where they can watch, the date and the time they can watch it.

The information in the left image is developing what real media products use on their adverts. Not everyone in the target audience reads this part of the advert as it is usually in small print. However, I had challenged that by making the font bigger so that the audience can read it if they would like it.

Double Page Spread:

This is my double page spread for my documentary and it involves many conventions of a double page spread; main image, masthead, page numbers, cover line, lead paragraphs and main body. There is a convention that I did challenge with my double page spread and that is the social media text at the bottom of the right column. As part of my A2 Coursework, I wanted my double page spread to be like a tabloid newspaper rather than a magazine and this is because it looks more professional.

Main image & Page Numbers:These conventions are being developed in my coursework as it used in every newspapers.

The leading paragraph is the information that informs the reader a little bit about what the article is about. This is what most newspapers use so that the reader can read on if they would like to. The main body is known as the article. My article is different to many others as it is a question and answer between the interview and one of the main characters in the documentary. this is challenging real newspapers because magazines are usually the ones doing that sort of thing.

Masthead: This title is placed on top of the photograph which is a convention that has been challenged. As the mastheads in newspapers are usually placed just above the main body.