Media

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

2. A-roll Footage
A-roll footage for documentaries are usually interviews with people that are important to the
subject. In this case we interviewed a sports teacher, considering the mise en scene it was
shot in the college gym. We filmed using a HD solid state broadcast camera Sony HXR-MC
2000E and a tripod, it was important to consider the rule of thirds when interviewing
somebody to follow the basic technical conventions of real media products. The above shot
(on the right) is a classic example, the interviewee sat to one side with the eye level one third
down and one third in, talking across the camera diagonal to the interviewer. In our
documentary we have edited the questions out of the film, which makes it look professional.
The above two shots are filmed differently to give variety to the documentary, the left is a
medium shot, right is a head and shoulder shot. We used graphics on screen for the
interviewee name tags, relevant information throughout and the title of the documentary.

3. B-roll footage
In our documentary we used quite a lot of b-roll footage creating montages with a lot of our
film. During the interviews we put in cut away shots relating to what the interviewee was
talking about. Considering our documentary was about endorphins we wanted to really
show how some extreme sports that released adrenaline and other feel good chemicals, we
used archive footage to show these as it was difficult to find people to film. We didn’t really
use any establishing shots throughout the documentary, there is a pan of a gym which may
be seen as one. Vox pops are popular b-roll footage in real media products, we added a short
set of vox pops with people saying which gym they go to.
B-roll footage is effective when used during interviews, these are called cut aways. When
the interviewee is talking about a particular subject, to break it up and make it not look too
boring cutting to another shot relevant to the topic makes it more appealing.

4. Voice Over & Graphics
In our documentary we didn’t use a presenter that you
see on screen, instead we put in a voice over as there are a
lot of visuals to watch so we didn’t think taking up any of
the five minutes with shots of a presenter would be a
good idea. This follows the usual conventions of real media
products we used a female voice over and she speaks with
an upbeat tone which fits well with the documentary. We
hoped that the enthusiastic tone would encourage the
viewers of the show to feel good. Graphics were added
onto the screen to support what the voice over was saying,
this also adds emphasis and makes the facts stick in the
viewers head.
The interview tags were made using
Photoshop CS5 the blue colour was
used to add a sporty feel to it.
Trainers were an obvious as the
people we were interviewing all
participated in sport in some way.

5. Music
The non diegetic sound in the documentary is
the soundtrack that plays throughout different
parts, the song chosen ‘Yeah Yeah’ By Willy
Moon is upbeat and fast paced relating well with
the theme of the show – anything that we have
added into the film is non diegetic as it is not
inside the shot. We edited a montage of clips to
fit with the beat of the song which is an effective
technique. The song is played at the start of the
documentary then fades out when the voice
over starts. Diegetic sounds would be from the
interviews. The clip mic used only records in
mono therefore you have to edit it in premiere
and fill left so that it is stereo sound. During the
film we added Zumba music to the appropriate
part which also fits in with the movement on
screen.

6. The split screen that we used challenges real media products as it is something that you don’t see
very often. On the left the interviewees are all answering the same question, I think this is an
effective way of formatting an interview, it is more interesting than just a head and shoulder shot of
one person. Each interviewer answers the question in a clear and different way to the others. The
image on the right is from the documentary when the voice over is talking about the aerobics and
different exercises you may do in that class, combining the shots like that gives the viewer more
information, one of the shots was made slow motion.
The use of still images in the documentary was another convention that we used this gives a strong
contrast to the rest of the film as the rest is all fast paced and upbeat. The Zumba shot is displayed then
moves onto a female performing the DVD. The still image of the brain zooms in at the start of the doc
accompanied by a voice over explaining where endorphins are released.