My media product uses, develops and challenges conventions of real documentaries, newspaper adverts and TV listings in the following ways: It develops conventions by including interviews, cutaways, voiceovers and archived footage in the documentary. It challenges conventions by having a young female presenter and placing the interview subject in one third of the frame. The newspaper advert develops conventions by including the Channel 4 logo and outlining the title. It challenges conventions by having the TV listings down the side of the page in the TV listings review. The TV listings review develops conventions by including the magazine masthead. It challenges conventions by having a large poster image take up half the double page spread.

1. 1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF
REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
GRACE SALMON

2. RESEARCH
I researched into the codes and conventions of documentaries, newspaper
adverts and TV listings review via analyzing existing products. This largely
helped me know what codes and conventions I should adhere to in order to
ensure my product looked professional, but also help me see what
conventions I wanted to challenge to ensure my products were unique.
Steve Neale stated that documentaries should rely on repetition and
difference in order to appeal to an audience.

3. RESEARCH
The conventions I discovered when researching into documentaries
and analyzing existing documentaries (such as ‘Inside Dior’ and
‘Stacey Dooley Investigates’) included:
• Variety of interviews
• Cutaways that anchor what is being said
• Presenter (typically male, older, middle class)
• Subject usually placed in one third of the frame (rule of thirds)
• ‘Voice of God’ narration.
In my own documentary extract, I made sure to both adhere to and
challenge some of codes and conventions I had researched.

4. RESEARCH
I also researched into Bill Nichols’ six modes of documentary
in order to decided witch style of documentary would be most
suitable to my topic.
I decided to create an expository documentary, as these
generally included a ‘voice of God’ voiceover and a ‘voice of
authority’ voiceover, as well as a variety of interviews,
cutaways and archived footage, which I included in my own
documentary.
https://advancedportfolio3118.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/research-
documentary-theorists.html

5. DOCUMENTARY - PRESENTER
Having a young, female presenter challenged typical documentary codes
and conventions because documentaries tend to have a white, male, middle
class presenter. I chose to have a female presenter because I think it would be
more appealing to my target audience of mainly females, aged 15-25.

6. DOCUMENTARY - CUTAWAYS
Using cutaways to anchor what the
presenter was talking about was a
common convention of documentaries
that my documentary developed.
For example, in ‘Make Me A Famous
Face’, a cutaway shot to a needle and
treatment was used when the narrator
was talking about cosmetic surgery.
In my own documentary, I used shots of
magazines and social media when
talking about their influence. I also used
a shot of the location the presenter was
visiting, which anchored what the
presenter was talking about.

7. DOCUMENTARY - INTERVIEWS
‘Inside Dior’
My documentary extract
developed conventions
of real documentaries by
including interviews, but
also by placing the
interview in one third of the
shot (rule of thirds), as
seen below in the ‘Inside
Dior’ documentary. Placing
the subject in one third of
the frame is more
aesthetically pleasing to
the audience and looks
more professional.

8. DOCUMENTARY – VOICEOVERS
Having voiceovers throughout
my documentary was another
way of developing
conventions of real-life
documentaries.
I used voiceovers in order to
convey more information about
celebrity influence. I also used
voiceovers to anchor the
footage I was using. For
example, when using a shot of
the school, I used a voiceover
explaining that the presenter
was going to the school to
interview students.

9. DOCUMENTARY - SOUND
For the opening sequence of my documentary, I
used the song ‘This is the Life’ by Two Door
Cinema Club. This adhered to conventions
because this type of indie/pop instrumental
music is often used in Channel 4 and E4
programmes.
For the background music during the interview
footage, I used an instrumental version of ‘Boys’
by Charli XCX. As my documentary is quite
mainstream and appeals to teens in the
mainstreamer/aspirer psychographic, this
mellow pop song will appeal to the target
audience, as well as following documentary
conventions because pop music is often used
throughout mainstream documentaries. E.g.
‘Rich Kids of Instagram’ and ‘Inside Dior’.
https://advancedportfolio3118.blogspot.co.uk/20
17/07/documentary-textual-analysis.html

10. DOCUMENTARY – ARCHIVED
FOOTAGE
Inside Dior
The use of archived
footage developed
conventions of
documentaries and also
followed the conventions of
an expository
documentary (Bill Nichols).
The archived footage
helped to anchor what the
presenter was saying. I
used this footage because it
is footage that was
important to my
documentary, but I was
unable to actually get
myself.

11. NEWSPAPER ADVERT – LOGO
My newspaper advert followed
Channel 4 advert conventions by
placing the channel logo on centre,
right hand side of the advert.
Additionally, my advert followed
conventions, as seen in ‘Seven
Days’, by having the Channel 4 logo
the same colour as the rest of the
typography on the advert. This
helps to clearly demonstrate and
colour scheme and a house style,
that I have also used in my TV
listings review.

12. NEWSPAPER ADVERT - TITLE
My newspaper advert followed
conventions of channel 4
documentary adverts by having
the title outlined in a coloured
box. This can be clearly seen on
many Channel 4 documentaries,
including ‘Seven Days’ and
‘Disarming Britain’. Having the
title and date outlined with a
coloured box is more
aesthetically pleasing to the
audience than having plain
typography.

13. NEWSPAPER ADVERT
My documentary followed conventions by including a link to the
documentary on the Channel 4 website. This would appeal to my target
audience of 15-25 year olds who are digitally native and would be more
likely to watch my documentary online via VOD rather than on TV.
Not having a tagline for my
documentary adhered to
Channel 4 advert conventions,
as most adverts choose just to
have the title. I think not having a
tagline follows the simplistic
style of Channel 4 adverts and is
also aesthetically pleasing.

14. TV LISTINGS REVIEW
https://advancedportfolio3118.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/res
earch-tv-listings-magazine.html - here is a link to one of
the TV listings magazines I analysed.
Having the listings down the side of the page was
challenging conventions of a TV listings review.
Many of the TV listings magazines that I had
analysed had a full double page spread of all the
TV listings and then a separate double page
spread/one page for the review of a
documentary/TV programme. Therefore, I have
combined these two layouts that I have seen. The
TV listings down the side of the page helps to
highlight to the audience when the documentary
is on, as I have highlighted the title in red.

15. TV LISTINGS REVIEW – IMAGE
Having an image/poster for my
documentary taking up half of
the double page spread
challenges conventions of TV
listings magazines. Most
reviews tend to have an image
that takes up the entire page or
they have a selection of small
images. However, I chose to
have a poster/advert for my
documentary in my review
because I feel that it looks more
aesthetically pleasing and will
engage the audience.
Additionally, this shows a clear
connection to my documentary
and newspaper advert as I have
used the same title and tagline.

16. TV LISTINGS REVIEW – MASTHEAD
My TV listings review adhered to
magazine codes and conventions by
having the masthead of the TV listings
review on the double page spread next
to the page numbers. This is a common
magazine conventions that follows the
house style of the magazine and keeps
up with the brand identity.
Here is the ‘What’s on
TV’ listings magazine,
which has the magazine
masthead in the top left
hand corner and the top
right hand corner.