1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and products of
real media products?
Hiral Nathoo

2. For our main task we were asked to create the opening 5 minutes of a
TV documentary along with a further 2 ancillary tasks which were a TV
listings magazine and radio trailer on a topic of our choice. We decided
to aim our products at teenagers therefore we debated on a few topics
which teenagers would be able to relate to. After discussing which topic
would be the most appealing we came to a final conclusion and
decided on “The pressures of beauty.”
Our ideas for topics we could use in our documentary:

3. We decided to look into Bill Nichols an American film critic’s theory
because he is well known for his study of documentary film. Therefore
his theory and ideas have been reinforced through our documentary.
We also watched Morgan Spurlock’s supersize me documentary as Bill
Nichols’ theories were applied to it on various occasions. The
performative and participative modes were held throughout the
documentary as Morgan Spurlock’s personal daily life was portrayed in
this documentary but at the same time expressed his own opinions
and feelings constantly. Our documentary was quite similar to this as
we tried to showcase actual facts on the pressures of beauty and how
it affects teenagers. We portrayed factual information from both sides
of the argument to allow viewers to form their own opinions. We used
both a voice over and on screen narrator to give a personal touch to
our documentary but also by using a voiceover we were able to make
our evidence seem more factual.
Bill Nichols
Morgan Spurlock
Our documentary

4. We also watched another documentary which was Connie fisher’s
make up documentary on BBC as it had a similar topic to ours. While
analysing this documentary we were able to gain ideas on the codes
and conventions used in most documentaries. We noticed that
documentaries with similar topics to ours had a on screen narrator as
these are based on sensitive topics therefore it is important that there
is a on screen narrator to help build an interaction with the viewers.
We used an on screen narrator in our documentary to add a personal
touch. Although we did also use an off screen narrators/voiceover
when displaying key facts because we saw that in “supersize me” and
in Connie fisher’s documentary this approach was taken. This was
done to stop the audience from getting distracted and make them
focus on the facts we were giving across to them.

5. We also found that most documentaries contain vox pops to voice the
audiences opinions and views to viewers. . We noticed that other
documentaries like supersize me and Connie fisher’s make up
documentary included vox pop’s.
In our own documentary asked our target audience what they think
makes someone beautiful. We decided to develop this convention by
using a small, quick question as this makes people more likely to want
to respond. This gave our viewers a quick snapshot of public opinion.
We decided to ask people of a similar age to our target viewers age
because by doing this we would give our viewers and portrayal of what
other people of a similar age to them think. This would help build a
connection between our documentary and the viewers and add
interest. We also ensured that we included an equal mix of genders
and race to make our documentary less biased.

6. In many documentaries there is the use of expert interviews. These expert interviews
play a key role in documentaries as these provide viewers actual facts from expertise
who specialise in what they do. These interviews usually take place with people from a
field which is directly linked to the topic. Both, supersize me and Connie Fisher’s
documentary contained expert interviews. We also then went on to having two expert
interviews in our documentary. One from a make up artist who sees teenagers on a daily
basis feeling pressured and another from a student development officer whose role it is
to ensure teenagers are comfortable and not feeling pressured into doing anything. We
felt that having these interviews from experts would provide viewers with stronger
evidence of the pressures which teenagers face specifically related to the topic of beauty.
These experts also provided our viewers with advice on what they should do if they feel
pressured. This would appeal to viewers because our target audience is teenagers and
this is the age group that are most likely to feel pressured. Therefore they would be able
to take on the advice given across directly to them from the experts and it would help
them. This would directly relate to the so they would find it more interesting to view. In
most documentaries we saw that the expert does not directly look at the camera and
therefore to stick to this convention we also made sure that the expert looks past the
camera as this makes the audience feel intrigued.

7. Another convention often seen in documentaries are statistics and
facts appearing on screen with a voice over explaining them. This
effect is usually used to maintain the viewers concentration and
interest within the documentary. We saw that often when statistics
and facts were given there was a voiceover used in supersize me and
Connie Fisher’s documentary to pass across evident information to
the viewer. Therefore in our documentary we developed this by
using a blur effect on the background footage of students walking in
and over the top we added percentages as the voiceover explained
the statistics shown. This stopped the viewer from getting distracted
and provided viewers with convincing information. It added factual
weight to our documentary making our information given seem
stronger so the viewers will be more likely to believe what we say in
our documentary.

8. Within the two documentaries we saw they both had an
establishing shot which explained exactly where the
documentary is taking place. We also used an
establishing shot in our documentary when our on
screen presenter was explaining where our
documentary was based and all the people we will be
talking to. Our establishing shot was a long, wide shot
of Solihull sixth form which was where our
documentary was mainly based. The viewers of our
documentary are likely to be teenagers therefore when
they see this establishing shot they will be interested in
our documentary as we will be talking to people of a
similar age to theirs. Therefore their views and opinions
are highly likely to conform with each other.

9. In connie fisher’s documentary and supersize me there has been
the use of background footage of youtube videos. This helps add
extra relevant footage to the documentary. In our documentary we
included youtube videos of girls as little as the age of 6 doing their
makeup. As this provided the point we were trying to make with
visual evidence. Our topic was the pressures of beauty and we
knew that our viewers are most likely to be teenagers. Therefore
by using youtube videos of teenagers doing their make up aswell
in our documentary viewers were able to relate to it as these were
of people a similar age to them. As this is a sensitive topic to we
used these videos as they were a portrayal of many of our viewers
this would make the viewer feel a sense of comfort.

10. At the beginning of the Connie Fisher beauty documentary we
saw a time lapse of her doing her make up. We also decided
to use a time lapse at the beginning of our documentary of
three girls doing their makeup. It is much quicker and
therefore less time consuming for the viewers. We used this
effect to speed up the girls doing there makeup as we felt this
would be a good way of opening and introducing the topic.
The time lapse used directly links to our topic of the pressures
of beauty. We already knew that many of our viewers will be
teenage females therefore they will be able to relate to what
is being shown in the documentary and intrigue them to want
to watch the rest of it to find out more.

11. We also looked into the codes and conventions of radio
trailers before creating our own. We found that most
radio trailers a backing track which plays throughout the
whole trailer. We decided to use a backing track running
through the whole of our radio trailer as this kept the
pace of our trailer going. It also made our trailer seem
more lively and energetic making it entertaining for our
listeners. The background sound was catchy we are
hoping it will subconsciously keep running through our
listeners minds as this will keep reminding them to view
our documentary.

12. Another convention of radio trailers is having a
voiceover which provides listeners with all the
information they need to know. We stuck to this
convention by having a voiceover running
throughout the trailer which provided the
listeners with all the information about the
documentary in a quick pace and time
consuming manner. We did this as radio trailers
are expected to be short and snappy therefore
having a voiceover would give across the
information at a fast pace to our target audience
of teenagers.

13. Before creating our article for a listings magazine we had to
decide on which listings magazine would be most
appropriate for our topic of the pressures of beauty
therefore we decided to create a mind map which gave us
advantages and disadvantages of potential magazines which
could contain our double page spread. After further
discussions we decided on the what’s on tv magazine as we
felt this would be most appropriate for our channel.

14. A convention of the what’s on TV magazine is
the red strap going across the top and bottom of
the magazine. We stuck to this convention as we
felt that when readers will see this they will
instantly get the idea that this is an article from
the what’s on TV magazine. We wanted to make
it clear that our double page spread is from that
particular magazine.

15. Another convention of this magazine is having the main image
to the side of the main text. We decided to also stick to this
convention by having our image to one side and the text to
another. However, usually in articles from what’s on tv the
image is placed on the right hand side. We decided to
challenge this and place our image on the left because we felt
that people are more likely to look on the left as it comes first.
We wanted people to analyse the image and form their own
thoughts on the article before reading the text. As our target
audience are teenagers we knew that they would much rather
look at an image than read. Therefore placing the image on
the left would be a way to lure them into the article making
them form questions in their mind and leading them to
reading the text.

16. Overall, I feel we have mainly stuck to the typical
codes and conventions of a documentary, radio
trailer and listings magazines article. Where we
have not stuck to these we have made sure we
have developed these for a particular reason
depending on our targeted audience. By
conforming to these codes and conventions we
have used features that our target audience
would expect and want in these products.