2. Conventions of a Documentary
• Hand held Camera - creates a sense of realism and personalised point of view
• Narrative Voice Over - usually directly addressing the audience to involve them as well as giving
added detail about the documentary
• Interviews with experts / witnesses / general public - Vox Pops
• Parallel Editing linking key scenes
• Use of Archive footage to support filmed scenes
• Mediated culture – documentaries select and construct, allowing opinion and subjectivity
• Selective editing - filmmakers cut and edit clips in order to construct and portray specific meaning
• Often point of view with encoded ideology, preferred meaning
• Use of Establishing Shot and Close Ups/Medium Close Ups
• Often single stranded, linear – the documentary is usually about only one topic
• Exploration of narrative themes, messages and values
• Different purposes – to entertain, inform, educate, shock, for propaganda purposes, etc.
• Eye-Level Camera angles
• Diegetic Sound - interviews
• Non-diegetic sound - voice overs & background music
• Non-linear clips - cutting back and forth between interviews
• Linear structure - beginning middle end
3. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
4. My media product is a short documentary exploring music and fashion in and around the city of
Manchester. It uses vox pops and sound bites throughout, giving opinions and information from the public
that I interviewed in Manchester. When studying ‘real media products’ I noticed that a common media
convention is the use of vox pops so I decided to use them in my own documentary as a way of conveying
it’s message to viewers as vox pops commonly deliver information in small ‘chunks’ making the viewer
stay interested, rather than long interviews where concentration can be easily lost.
Vox Pops
I have made comparisons between
Inside Manchester and another similar
fashion documentary; From Water To
Ice. Both of these documentaries use vox
pops with interviewees and experts to
give the audience information about the
subject.
5. Voiceover
Inside Manchester: Music & Fashion also opens with a voiceover of me, explaining the documentary and
some background information about Manchester and the aims of what my music and fashion
documentary hopes to achieve. This voiceover is played over cutaways of different locations in
Manchester, to give the viewer an idea of what my media product is about.
I overlapped my music and
different voiceover narrations to
make them run smoothly and
without gaps. I reduced the volume
of the music so the narration could
be heard clearly by viewers.
6. MCU/CU Shots
A stereotypical convention of a short documentary is the use of close up and medium close up filming,
with the person speaking to the camera facing straight forward. This gets the head and shoulders of the
interviewee into the shot and gives viewers something more to concentrate on as they can clearly see the
person’s facial expressions and as my documentary reflects fashion, the viewer is able to see in detail what
the interviewee is wearing. My documentary also uses the convention of the camera being at the
interviewee’s eye level, as a way of making the viewer feel more involved with the interview and keeping
them interested in the documentary.
Both Inside Manchester and From Water
to Ice use medium close up and close up
shots to frame the interviewee. And to
show what they are wearing because of
the fashion based nature of the
documentaries.
7. Professional Interviews
Another convention of a documentary is the use of professional views from people who know and relate
to the field of the documentary. In this case, Inside Manchester spoke to Sam Webb, an 18 year old
singer/songwriter; for his take on how music relates to fashion. I also interviewed a teenage model, Amy
Heard on her opinions, and as well, I interviewed Mark Radcliffe of BBC Radio 6 who has been a radio
presenter and TV personality, who spoke about his personal views after being a well-known expert in the
music industry for many years.
By comparing documentaries of a
similar content and style, I
decided that using professional
interviews helps back up facts
and opinions. In From Water To
Ice, Anh Volcek is a fashion
designer discussing her expert
ideas.
8. Professional Interviews
I have introduced my experts at
the beginning of the
documentary, with a name strap
showing their name and
profession, showing viewers how
they relate to the themes and
messages of Inside Manchester.
9. Experts
Being able to interview Mark Radcliffe
not also gave Inside Manchester: Music
and Fashion a more professional feel
with the use of an interview from an
expert in the music business, who has
extensive years of experience in radio
and television, festivals, and who has
met many credible musicians, ranging
from David Bowie to Jake Bugg. This
meant that he had lots of useful and
insightful information and expert
opinions and views on the topics
discussed in my documentary.
To make the documentary filming look
even more professional, I was invited
to interview Mark at BBC 6 Music
studio in Media City in Manchester,
relating to the theme of the
documentary, and also gave an
important insight into the workings of
the BBC and radio and television
studios.
10. Multi-strand narrative
Most documentaries are based around one main idea, whereas Inside Manchester, my documentary,
explores the links between many; a multi-strand narrative. I looked at the differences and similarities
between music and fashion, and how it creates stereotypes, and how they are perceived by people in
everyday life. By exploring how different strands link, this challenges the media convention of a single
strand narrative.
I interviewed lots of young
people and edited the vox pops
together going between different
opinions and interviewees to give
the multi-strand narrative.
11. Name Straps
A common convention of a documentary is the use of name straps when introducing new people into the
narrative, which I adhered to when making Inside Manchester. I used a recurring font throughout the
documentary, applying it to these name straps when introducing the subject experts, for example, Amy
Heard, with a short subheading on her professional role. I also used this same font on the screens that tell
the viewer the question being answered in the vox pops, and the title sequence and end credits. By
keeping this font the same throughout, it gives the documentary a professional feel and creates a theme.
By introducing experts at the
beginning of the documentary, it gives
viewers an idea of their relation to the
topics discussed, and their
professional role. By researching
other documentaries such as From
Water To Ice, I found that this is a
common convention.
