Evaluation Question 1

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOESYOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE CODES AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS
EVALUATION QUESTION 3
FREYA DOWNS

2. What was our documentary about?
The documentary we decided to create for our A2 Media Studies advanced portfolio
was a documentary about a social movement known as “Meninism”. Meninism is
essentially a parody of Feminism and the treatment of Feminism on social media. It
is both a parody and an actual movement as many people actually believe in it’s
values and have even chosen to monetise it with branded merchandise. We chose
this topic as it is very easy to discuss it as a Media student because of it’s influence in
the real and online worlds.

3. The Expository Mode.
We looked into Bill Nichol’s model of Documentary
modes and decided that the Expository mode was
the best choice for our film as it is the most
commonly used one in documentaries and the
easiest to replicate.We followed the codes and
conventions of this mode completely.We made
sure to have an emphasis on verbal commentary in
our documentary by using a narrator.We carefully
chose our narrator and brought in a drama student
to do it as her feminine, enthusiastic and insightful
tone would most appeal to the target audience.All
the way through the documentary we address the
audience directly, with titles ad voices we proposed
a perspective onto the audience to advance our
argument that Meninism is becoming a serious
movement that needs to be taken as seriously as
Meninists are taking it, whether the audience see it
as a positive or negative.

4. Style Models
We looked into several style models to point out various codes and conventions of
documentary making, but also, appropriate traits we could borrow from them as we chose
documentaries that were similar to ours in genre and content.We took some of the very key
elements of our documentary from the style models, things such as our use of interview
were taken from style models, our choice to let a Meninist anonymously speak for himself.
Also, our decision to use voxpops to open the documentary with a sense of confusion and
negative opinion/ ignorance towards the subject. It was important to use style models as if
we hadn’t done this we wouldn’t have made our documentary “like a documentary” and so
these examples gave us a clear idea of what the final outcome should be.

5. Interviews
We used a range of interviews in our documentary that all
follow the main codes and conventions of documentaries.
These interviews could easily but split into 3 types:
• Expert Interviews-We held two expert interviews, one with the student
development officer from our college, and one with multiple people who are part
of the feminist society. We followed the conventions of interviewing by putting
them in an appropriate environment, offices and computers were a good use of
props to connote professionalism. We also always asked the subject to look at us
and not into the camera a this is a trait always used in real documentaries.We
slightly broke the conventions of an interview by holding a group interview, this
was hard to film and we didn’t really want to do it but we had to as it was essential
to show the gender equality society in our documentary.
• Anonymous Interview-This is a trait often used by film makers that deal with
sensitive topics such as ours. Seeing as Meninism can often be seen as a “hate
group” I was important for us to be able to conceal the identity of the Meninist.
This also allowed us to exploit conventions of documentary making by including
an anonymous interview, and also experiment with filming and lighting
techniques that we otherwise would not have been able to do.
• Voxpop Interviews- again we stuck to the conventions of this type of interview,
asking people in the street and having very spontaneous one worded answers that
when all edited together, reveal and seemingly general opinion.We mainly used
them at the beginning to open the documentary with the idea of their being
mixed opinions towards menininsm, which is something documentaries often do.

6. Camera Angles
We followed codes and conventions in our
documentary by using appropriate types of shots for
our different scenes and sections of the documentary.
For example, we use many cut away shots that show
close ups of relevant imagery, such as when the
narrator/speaker says “feminism”, we show a close up
of a book about feminism. Also, in exposition, we show
lots of establishing shots of the college where we
filmed; the camera panning over the college refectory
and sign, cutting to close ups of students talking. In
interviews we always use a medium close up of the
subject, head/shoulders/torso, and place them central
facing camera left. In our anonymous interview, we
use close ups of the meninists hands typing and over
the shoulder shots to elude to a sense of mystery and
also connect to the connotations of internet use and
“hacktivism” that surround meninism.

7. Facts and Statistics.
Following the example set by the
documentaries we watched, we used a
graphical representation of the graphics
and statics we gathered in our original
topic research questionnaire. We followed
conventions by using minimal text, just a
brief show of numbers and stats that
relate to what is being stated by the
narrator.Visually we used images that
represent Meninism and Feminism simply
and immediately, standing next to each
other and taking up 50% of the screen
each as to create a visual split of the
apposing sides.The background does not
distract visually either, we slowed down
some general footage of students walking
around the college and blurred it.

8. Audio and Narration
For our narration, we actually broke the
convention of narration by using a female
voice over. In all the style models we
watched, male representation is the
strongest, but we wanted equal
representation so that the argument didn’t
seem entirely pro-meninist, and, so that it
would appeal to a wider target audience.
The music actually follows the conventions
of documentary making, we used a low
music bed that doesn’t over power the
voice over or distract from the information
being given, yet, still loud enough to be
enjoyed and heard. It is upbeat and keeps
the audience engaged and interested.

9. Magazine Double Page Spread
We followed the codes and conventions of
magazine double page spreads by including things
such as the main image, header, by lines, drop
capital, and an affirmed colour scheme.These
were all very basic conventions that it was hard for
us to avoid, if we hadn’t done some of these things
then it would no longer classify as a double page
spread anymore. However, after researching how
RadioTimes creates their spreads, and how
film/documentary spreads in general are done, we
discovered that there were instances where we
had to subvert the conventions. RadioTimes do
not present their text in a similar way to other
spreads, use the block alignment “justify” for their
text, but we followed the house style of Radio
Times and used the “align left” option.We also
broke the convention of direct address, having the
subject of the main image face the audience.We
had to break this to maintain our theme of
anonymity throughout all of our products and so
our Meninist Subject is looking down/ has his face
concealed.

10. RadioTrailer
There weren’t actually many style models we
could use when researching radio trailers ass they
don’t actually advertise on BBC Radio 1 unless it’s
for a new BBC drama so we had to really broaden
our research. From what we found, we found that
there were some conventions to follow. For
example, we used sound clips from our
documentary that involve key phrases that
summarise the documentary.We also used the
same music and narrator as the documentary, to
create a brand, which is usual practice for creating
documentary promotion. By following these
conventions, we created a realistic trailer, even
though we didn’t have a style model to work from.