The codes and conventions of short film and the mockumentary genre

1. After completing the short film codes and conventions I have
decided to include the analysis and breakdown of existing media
codes and conventions regarding the final genre I have chosen for
my A level media studies short film, the mockumentary.

2. Essential Tips on Making a Short Film
Storyline:
• An original, exciting and unexplored ideas, avoiding cliché ideas
• The story must have some logic the audience can follow and understand
• Short films focus on ONE event or and event in the life of ONE main character
• Should look at the subject matter through a different angle or using a different technique
• Inspiration should be found from the director experience and those around him
• A good starting point is stories from the magazines/newspapers
Script:
• A good and developed script is the key to a narrative based short films success
• Storyline must be condensed and the characters must be developed in a short amount of time
High production values:
• The production value must be used the same as if they were shooting a feature film with a crew
• Low budget short films are often undermined by poor sound, lighting, camera work and editing
Good acting:
• Bad acting can prevent the audiences from getting engaged with reality of the film as they will be
unable to believe in what is going on
• The directors must choose the actors with the appropriate age, skill, sexuality and ethnicity for
the role

3. Any kind of dramatic story requires 3 basic elements
World:
A journey is a popular setting for a short film. One life-changing event leads the characters to
often take literal journeys to show the progress of their metaphorical emotional journey.
Problem:
The main protagonist must have a goal to achieve or an obstacle to overcome.
Character:
There are a few important questions about the main character
1. Who is the main character?
2. What is their problem?
3. How will the problem be recognized by the audiences?
4. Are the stakes high enough?

4. Writing and Filming a Short Film
• You must choose a relatively simple idea and expand on it, the stories must be as polished as
possible
• Must research locations, but not use too many in the script
• Every shot and every line of dialogue matter
• Should last 5 to 15 min, and should end with the last scene being a twist
• Must record good quality sound, also must clear any copyright issues for visuals and music
• Complete pre-planning production and do a storyboard
• The story must be driven with both emotional and physical action
• Short films should be visually strong enough to reveal inner conflict of the main character
• The best shorts are usually like poetry compared to the novelistic feel of a feature
• Short films scripts are treated as compressed features
• Shooting on video is the cheapest and quickest way
• Making a film is divided into three stages - pre-production(scripting, planning, and raising funds),
production(shooting the film), and post-production (editing, grading and visual effects)

5. • Codes and conventions
• Critical analysis

6. • Mockumentary (also known as mock documentary) is a genre of
film and television in which fictitious events are presented in
documentary format. These productions are often used to say
things about real issues in life. They may be either comedic or
dramatic in form, although comedic mockumentaries are more
common.
• They use the same codes and conventions as documentary, such
as a voice-over narrator, 'real' footage of events and real people,
archival photographs, interviews with apparent 'experts' and
'eyewitnesses', and hand-held camera.
• Mock-documentaries 'work' because of the assumptions and
expectations that we have of documentary. When we see a text
that looks and sounds real, we tend to naturally believe it.
• At some point a mockumentary will 'flag' that it is fictional. This
might happen through promotional material, or become obvious
when watching the mockumentary itself, or not be revealed until
later.
• Because they demonstrate how easily all of the codes and
conventions we associate with the conveying of 'reality' can be
faked, mockumentary can often cause us as viewers to consider
why we place so much faith in the accuracy and integrity of
genres such as documentary.

7. •Non-diegetic sound and skillful camera shots are used when transiting from one
location to another.
•Comedic but natural, as they use no laugh track. Feel good nature as there is usually a
positive or inspiring tone. Scene can be improvised.
•Avoids using long-shots, focuses on close-ups as they introduce the audience better to
the subject followed. a static camera is used during the interviews.
•Still images are used to assist in what the narrator or interviewee is talking about
•Usually minimal graphics are used, they are only used to introduce the main
characters of the mockumetary so the audience are aware of who they are.

8. Synopsis-
Insufferable middle-management type David Brent(Ricky Gervais) is a manager of low
intelligence and has no sense of humor, but is convinced that he is the best, the most
entertaining and the most well liked boss of all time is in the center of this
mockumentary-style comedy set at a nondescript paper company in a nondescript
office park in England. David doesn't realize that his employees -- among them beaten-
down salesman Tim, under-appreciated receptionist Dawn and truly weird Gareth -
put up with his feeble jokes and inappropriate behavior only because he signs the
paychecks.

9. Series origins-
The Office is a mockumentary sitcom that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on
9 July 2001. Created, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is
about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg
Paper Company. Gervais also stars in the series, playing the central character, David Brent.
The series started as a small, home-made video by Stephen Merchant when he was trying to get a job
at the BBC. He came up with the idea for making a documentary style format as it would be easier
for him to film. He and his colleague Ricky Gervais came up with The Office (2001) idea and used a
local University to film it. Upon seeing the short video the BBC requested that they make a series out
of it. Many of the jokes from this original film are recycled during the Proper Series for example,
David Brent's opening speech about making employee's dreams come true.
The show centers on themes of social clumsiness, the trivialities of human behaviour, self-importance
and conceit, frustration, desperation and fame. The success of the show led to a number of localized
adaptations in US, Chilean and French Canadian (based upon its basic story and themes) being
produced for the television markets of other nations, resulting in an international Office franchise.
The writers at the start did not imagine that a second season would be created and after bowing to
pressure to create one they would not do it again for a third. The show ended on a high note after
two Christmas specials which tied up knots and rounded off wonderfully the first two seasons.

10. Mainstream success –
Two six-episode series were made, along with a pair of 45-minute Christmas specials. When it was
first shown on BBC Two, it was nearly cancelled due to low ratings, but it has since become one of the
most successful of all British comedy exports. As well as being shown internationally on BBC
Worldwide, channels such as BBC Prime, BBC America and BBC Canada, the series has been sold to
broadcasters in over 80 countries, including ABC1 in Australia, The Comedy Network in
Canada, TVNZ in New Zealand and the pan-Asian satellite channel STAR World, based in Hong
Kong. The show began airing in The United States on Cartoon Network's late night programing
block, Adult Swim on 18 September 2009 until 2012.
When the series aired the first season, they did not even know how popular it would get in some
future episodes. The fact that its release on the DVD format proved to be the BBC's best selling
comedy release shows its mass popularity and appeal.
Holds the record for highest non-feature DVD sales in the UK.

11. Critical reception-
The show has received critical acclaim, and has been regarded as one of the greatest British sitcoms of
all time. Series one currently holds a Metacritic score of 98 out of 100, based on 12 reviews, indicating
"universal acclaim". Series two received similar acclaim, holding a Metacritic score of 93 out of 100,
based on 16 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The Office Christmas specials were also well
received, and hold a Metacritic score of 98 out of 100, based on 19 reviews, indicating "universal
acclaim".
Today the show has been sold in more than 60 countries and it even had a remake in America. The
Office is the first non-American show nominated in the category of best television musical or comedy
for a Golden Globe Award; and Ricky Gervais was the first non-American actor nominated for the lead
role in a television comedy for the same award.
The first British sitcom for over 25 years to be nominated for a Golden Globe, and the first ever to win
one.
At the British Comedy Awards in 2001, The Office won the Best New TV Comedy award. In 2002, the
series won the Best TV Comedy award, and Gervais the Best TV Comedy Actor award.

12. Codes and Conventions-
In every episode, there is a shot, from the exact same angle, of the photocopier making multiple
copies of a document.
To simulate the look of an actual documentary, it is filmed in a single-camera setup, without a studio
audience or a laugh track.
The Office was filmed with a single-camera setup in a cinéma vérité allowing the look of an actual
documentary, with no studio audience or laugh track, allowing its "deadpan" and "absurd" humor to
fully come across.
The presence of the camera is acknowledged by the characters, who enthusiastically participate in the
filming.
The main action of the show is supplemented with talking-head interviews or "confessionals" in
which characters speak one on one with the camera crew about the day's events.