This document discusses how a media product uses, develops or challenges the forms and conventions of real media through its use of locations, voiceovers, characters, photographs, layout, fonts, titles, manipulation, introduction and narrative structure. It evaluates the different elements that make up a media product and how they compare to real-world examples.
Throughout my documentary I have researched into several different documentaries to give me an insight into the conventions which documentaries use, this has allowed me to apply these conventions to my documentary. Some of the conventions I have followed include the location of my documentary, I have filmed on a Skateboarding park which relates to my subject of my documentary. This is a typical convention of skateboarding documentaries as this sets the scene and allows for the stunts to be performed. I have also filmed off road to represent a motorbike rider. This relates to the sport as well as the age of the participants.
Other conventions of documentaries I have followed are; voiceovers - I have included these in my documentary to give the audience more information of the sport and suggest the argument I am trying to make in the documentary of 'youths are not all bad'. Another convention I have followed of documentaries is the use of interviews. I have included interviews within my documentary giving some more information about BMXing, and motor biking. This is a typical convention of documentaries. However throughout my short documentary I have challenged this convention by editing my interviews and applying an effect called 'Luminate' to enable the interview and the footage of the motor biker riding overlap each other and both be visible. I think this is an interesting alternative I have added to my footage and I think this really represents the theme of 'youth' and makes my footage visually more interesting which will appeal to my target audience.
I have edited my documentary so that I introduce the participants through inserting a still photograph I have edited on Photoshop having a text insert fly onto the screen. I have done this because I feel that this way the visual image is kept really interesting. I also think that this will appeal to the target audience more. I think this also makes this very clear and keeps the style of my documentary.
For my ancillary projects - my double page spread and my newspaper advertisement, I have included photographs I also took on the day of shooting. This links all my projects together and gives my work a house style.
The newspaper advertisement I have done was based around the style of typical documentary advertisement based around examples I researched for Channel 4 documentary advertisements. I have chosen to base my newspaper advertisement around Channel 4's house style because I believe the simple layout will appeal to my target audience, as the research I carried out shows the prefer 'simple' rather than 'in depth'. I think this is eye catching and colourful which the target audience also prefer. I have however used the BBC one logo as I believe because this is a very specific documentary this will have a niche audience.
Throughout both my ancillary projects and my documentary I have used a very bold masculine font for the title of the piece. I have used a masculine font because after completing my research I found that most people involved within skateboarding/ BMXing and motor biking are males. I also believe this suited my documentary because all the members in the documentary are males. I have chosen a specific font from dafont.com to use as my documentary title. I have chosen this because I feel that the font has a textured surface similar to tarmac, which relates to my theme. Therefore this is introducing my documentary with the relevant font.
The title I have chosen for the documentary is called (RIDIN') I have chosen this title as this is slang, I think this really represents youth and this message will be carried throughout my documentary. The title also relates to the target audience and attracts them more to the documentary because of this.
My documentary consists of several different manipulations. I have tried to accentuate the feeling of youth and insert really bright colours and interesting effects over my clips to target the audience and keep their attention on the footage. I have also included montages as I feel this really suits the target audience and the fast paced clips and the effects I have included also express what the sport is like. The documentaries I have researched haven't included a heavy amount of editing in terms of filters and montages, and I have challenged this documentary. However I think this was relevant to do so because of the subject of my documentary - I wanted my documentary to make the audience really understand the participants personalities through use of music and colours. This will appeal to my target demographic as they will have the similar interests.
I have begun my documentary with establishing shots of BMXer's sat on the ramps. I have done this because I think this introduces the documentary before the title, giving the audience a quick summary of what my documentary is about. These shots of the participants still is a calm introduction before the fast paced shots, this is a nice contrast which works well for gradually introducing the documentary.
My documentary has a fragmented narrative which I think works well with the subject of my documentary as this mixes my footage up and makes this visually more interesting with fast cuts.
