A2 Media Coursework

1. DOCUMENTARIES RESEARCH:
Man vs. wild with Bear Grylls:
A documentary includes facts about the particular topic. This is an observational mode of
documentary. It is about surviving in the wild, in the islands of the coast of Australia. Edward
Michael "Bear" Grylls is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is widely
known for his television series Man vs. Wild. The specific format included Bear’s experience
of living in the wild. The typical style, I identified was that the camera was being handheld.
The camerawork I noticed that the documentary portrayed were a number of aerial shots.
These were placed in the clip for the audience to look at the beautiful views of Australia,
also to show how dangerous it is out there. The media technique that I identified
throughout the documentary was incidental sound. This was used to accompany the action
being taken place in the clip. It appeared about half way through where it was tense while
he was climbing a mountain. The location is vital during the documentary because living in
in the wild is dangerous and is what the audience seem to enjoy as they have never seen
anything like the show. The editing technique I identified was eyeline match, this occurred
when Grylls was crossing the sea to another island, when the sharks were around them. The
camera was on bear who was looking at the sharks and then the camera moved to show the
sharks in the water. This was used to show what would happened if they moved, the
cameraman and Grylls may have been bitten by the sharks.
The conventions shown in this documentary was voiceovers, where Bear grabbed the
attention of the audience. Voiceover are usually authoritative in some way, encouraging the
audience to think that they either have some kind of specialist knowledge. This is was a real
life event that happened in Bear’s life. This is a convention of a documentary where the
event was presented to us are to be seen as ‘real’ by an audience. The natural sounds of the
waves is also a convention of the documentary and the sun was the natural lighting for the
documentary as Grylls was trekking Australia’s out-back. The narrative of the documentary
is basically Bear Grylls surviving the wildest of Australia.

2. Educating Yorkshire:
This documentary was about the school life of one particular school in Yorkshire called
Thornhill Community Academy. This documentary is identified as an interactive
documentary where they are answering questions that were not heard by the audience. The
interviewer was never seen, they tend to always be behind the camera which was the style
they chose for the documentary as they may have thought that it was more important for
the people who were featured in the documentary to be the main focus of the show. The
documentary’s format would be interviews but also an experience to know what happens in
school every day. The typical style was that the setting was different to other
documentaries I have seen, they had hidden cameras in the classrooms, corridors, offices,
outside and all parts of the school. The style is known as fly on the wall. The camera crew
works as discreetly as possible; however, it is also common for the students and teachers to
be interviewed, often by an off-camera voice. I like this style as the people in the show have
no idea there are being recorded.
The camera shot I identified was an over the shoulder shot, it was occurred when a student
came into the office for some help with his speech. The technique was used so that the
audience can understand how much the teacher wants to see the student to pass his English
GCSE, they do actually care about the children and their futures. The sound technique, I
noticed was direct address which was used for the students and teachers to express what
they were asked. This is when they knew the crew were filming them. The costume worn by
the students were very stereotypical as for every teenager who goes to school; they have to
wear uniform. Crosscutting was used throughout the whole of the documentary. It was used
so that the audience understood that the part was moving on to another scene.
The conventions of this documentary were that it included voiceovers and sound where
music was being played quietly in background of an interview between students and the
interviewer. Set up of the scene is also a convention of a documentary, during this
documentary, there was a room where the interview was bring taken place and this has
different objects that a school has within a room. In the classroom, I noticed how most of
the students put their hands up in the lesson when the teacher asked a question. What the
audience is being shown isn’t always true, this is because it is a way of cheaply getting
footage, and the crew might have had to wait 15 minutes for it to come naturally. There is
an issue because if the crew make a habit of using set ups, they will only be using images of
‘reality’ that the audience would already recognise stereotypes of the classroomand
producing fresh images/ideas about ‘reality’ would be impossible. The mis-en-scene is
shown through costume and props. The costume worn by the students are their uniform
and the teachers usually wear smart clothes to show their professionalism. The narrative is
about a secondary school in Yorkshire, the way the schooling life of the students that the
audience would be entertained by the silly behaviour of the students and also the teachers.