The document discusses how a student media project used and developed conventions of real media forms while also challenging some conventions. The project involved creating a TV documentary, radio trailer, and double page magazine spread about cyber bullying. While most conventions were followed, such as interviews and camera shots, some were challenged, like using fades between clips instead of straight cuts. Overall the goal was to make the pieces look professional while allowing some flexibility.

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

2. What we had to do.
For our A2 media course work we were asked to produce 3 different media pieces. We had to
create the opening 5 minutes of a TV documentary, a radio trailer and also a double page spread to
promote our documentary. Given a few months to do this we created our documentary first, we
researched into similar products to make our documentary look realistic and as though it is going to
be aired on TV. After researching different types of documentaries and similar topics we started to
plan filming. Filming had started and we got as much footage as we could even though we weren't
going to use it all, we then used Final Cut Express which was new to me to create the documentary
and log all the footage and start piecing together the 5 minutes. The radio trailer didn't take much
time in doing as we used live footage from our documentary, we had to create out radio trailer to
gain an interest and draw an audience in to watch our documentary. The double page spread was
also a smaller task compared to the documentary as we had to write an article based on cyber
bullying and based on the footage we had got. We then included pictures from the documentary
and published it in a popular TV listings magazine so that the type of audience that read it will be
interested in watching a relevant documentary.
Why we chose cyber bullying
We chose the topic of cyber bullying because the purpose of a documentary is to inform people and
make people engaged into the programme, we targeted our documentary at teens which with the high
use of social networking and smart phones cyber bullying is very common within that, therefore if we
targeted it at this audience and screened it at a suitable time it meant the message of how cyber
bullying can be prevented or even stopped can get around and people can understand the causes and
implications of cyber bullying.

3. Documentaries This type of
documentary is
We are also going to use a
hidden narrator whose voice
also polemical. is supported by images.
There are many different types of documentary Our documentary is also going to
features and the one that we chose to base our be expository, this is where we
documentary on was ‘Cinema Vertie’ this involves address the viewers directly to
a hand held camera and expresses views and advance an argument.
opinions there are also interviews included, this
uses and develops forms of real life Our documentary is also going to
documentaries. be a single strand mode, this is
where there is one plot/story
Channel throughout the whole
documentary. This is common for
documentaries because they are
usually shown for a purpose and to
get a message across so want to
base it on one topic.
We chose to air our documentary on BBC 3, this is because it has a young target
audience and our research shows through out questionnaire that people watch more
TV and documentaries on this channel, it is also well known for documentaries and is
on appropriate time and days for the target audience.

4. Our documentary Vs other documentaries.
We presented our
documentary name with
teens holding the letters
and in the college which
relates to teens and cyber
bullying, as you can see this
real life documentary is
about tattoos and they have
presented their title as a
tattoo, both of these titles
are relevant to the topic
and you know by looking at
them what the
documentary is going to be
about.

5. In the professional
documentary they chose
to say facts and figures
whilst showing footage of
the main topic where as
we challenged this
convention and wrote the
facts out and had music
and the narrator reading
the facts out. I think this
worked better for our
target audience because
they are teens and they
will sit and be engaged
and read them in
themselves rather than be
distracted and watching
the footage rather than
listening to the narrator.

6. These screen shots are both
vox pop interviews, where
they are completely
spontaneous and you just
approach someone to get
an answer of them, they are
both medium close up
shots which is a convention
of media products and
again we haven't
challenged any conventions
yet, they are both shot with
a hand held camera and
they answer with
comments and facts
towards the topic of the
documentary.

7. This was our expert interview
with nick warring, we showed
this by using a lower third,
this lets the audience know
who he is as well as the
narrator saying it, how ever
this doesn't happen in the
professional documentary as
the narrator just says who it is
and what he does and how he
is involved with the
programme. We haven't
challenged a convention
because this is how some
documentary choose to
display who is talking there for
we have use a convention of a
real media product.

8. We again challenged
another convention of
documentaries, we
used fades and
dissolves between each
clip whereas this
professional
documentary used
straight cuts, using
straight cuts makes the
documentary move
quicker and fits more
into the opening 5
minutes, our
documentary was at a
slower pace which I still
think worked well
because it was more of
a sensitive topic.

9. We used common conventions like a range of different camera
shots throughout the documentary this just gives it a different look
throughout, we also used another common convention of music in
the back ground, this makes the documentary seem more up beat
and so there is no silence in the documentary. We made sure that
we did a lot of research into cyber bullying to make sure we had
enough to talk about in the documentary so that it wasn’t boring.
We made sure that we were asking people in the target audience
what they thought cyber bullying was so that they could be
involved into the documentary so when it was shown on the TV the
audience could relate to those of similar ages involved. Overall I
think we used and developed conventions rather than challenge
them, we challenged a few but we thought doing it this way made
our documentary more appealing based on the sensitive subject. By
using and developing the main conventions this made our
documentary look more professional and more like a real one.

10. Double page spread Bottom left is my annotated double page
spread and how it looks next to my own
double page spread as part of the project, I
used images that were from the
documentary and also quotes that are
going to be shown in there too. The
professional double page spread takes up
one whole of the page in text and I have
challenged this form by spreading my
across both pages, they have also used one
main image where as on my double page
spread all the images are vital and make
the double page spread layout complete.
The colour schemes are the same and I
think that having a white background
works well because the colours that you
do use then stand out. I also think that the
columns work well and make the page look
more interesting and not just like a book, I
think that maybe my article was a bit too
long but then again it fills the page and
only gives vital information about the
documentary. The use of drop caps and tag
lines and also captions on the images use
and develop the conventions of real media
products.