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

1. Becky Brickwood

2. The voiceover is an important part of a
documentary as its helps the audience understand
what is going on. My documentary uses a
voiceover to give more information about what’s
being shown.
For example in my
documentary on Role models
the title sequence shows
somebody writing the term
role model, with a voice
over stating what the
documentary is about and
what a role model is.

3. However, originally I filmed the voiceover on an
Iphone, the end product didn’t sound professional
and was difficult to hear. Therefore I challenged the
form of my media product, which did not pay off.

4. Some documentaries use presenters to guide
the audience through what’s being discussed.
However in our documentary I have relied on
the interviews, B-roll footage, voiceovers and
different editing effects (dip to black, Cross
fade etc.) to guide the audience through the
stages of our documentary.

5. This adds further information to what is being
discussed in the documentary and helps explain what
is being discussed and highlights things that might be
important to the documentary.
For example in my
documentary I have used the
music video ‘love on top’ by
Beyoncé as it highlights her
dancing skills which relates
to why she is a Role model
for one of my interviewees.

6. Vox pops are usually filmed with people off the
street who give their opinion on a particular
topic being discussed and often filmed with a
handheld camera. Our documentary doesn’t
contain any vox pops, all our interviews are
formally conducted with consideration to the
mise en scene. This challenges the conventions
of documentaries.

7. Rule of thirds is used to create a good visual
look to the shot. It helps to make the scene
look professional. In my documentary I have
made sure the set up of each interview uses
rule of thirds.
For example in my
documentary the
interviewee has been
positioned in the right
third of the screen
looking just left of the
camera, this makes the
scene look balanced.

8. Interviews are used to gain an opinion or further
insight to the topic being discussed. They are filmed
with a camera on a tripod to make the shot look
professional and not shaky. Details of the interviewee
are placed on the bottom of the screen, to inform the
audience about the person being interviewed.
In my documentary I
used a tripod to make
the interview look
consistent I also put
details of the
interviewee at the
bottom to inform the
target audience of the
age of the person and
who their role model

9. Chroma key – blue or green screens are used to
create a background for the topic being discussed the
photo or video is added in the editing process.
Extracts from my
documentary which use
Chroma key.

10. In my documentary I shot B-roll footage from lots of
different angles to create an artistic motif and to
make it look more interesting. This is one way which I
have developed the conventions my documentary.
Extract of different angled shots from my
documentary

11. In my documentary I used editing to make it flow and
look professional, I use effects such as ‘dip to black’
to end a shot and move the footage forward, I also
used ‘cross fade’ to make certain shots look more
smooth.
An example
from my
documentary
of a scene
using ‘fade
to black’

12. Photographs help illustrate to the audience what is
being spoken about.
In my documentary I took images of Chris with his
Rihanna merchandise using a digital camera. Whilst
the images were being shown I put a voiceover
stating who Rihanna was.
Extract from my documentary

13. Instead of using the ‘Title’ option on Adobe
Premiere pro CS5, we shot footage of someone
writing the name of our title, this makes it
look a bit more creative and interesting
compared to using a pre-made title. This is
another way in which we have developed our
media product