This document discusses various conventions of documentary filmmaking and whether the filmmakers followed or broke these conventions in their documentary "Chasing Happiness". It examines conventions related to runtime, locations featured, number of main characters, story structure, radio advertisements, posters, and inclusion of film festival information or quotes. For each convention, it provides an analysis of whether the filmmakers' documentary complied with or diverged from the standard approach.

1. Jone Aboitiz

3.  We were able to
follow this convention
as our documentary is
only around 7
minutes long which
means that it is still a
short film.

4.  This is a convention that
we broke due to the fact
that our documentary
has shots of New York
and Los Angeles which
are places that would be
expensive to travel to
which a low budget
may not be able to
support. However, if I
did not go to these
places than we would
have been able to follow
this convention.

5.  At first we stated that this is
a convention which we
would follow. However, I
believe that we actually
broke this convention due to
the fact that having different
locations of America and
showing it at an American
film festival with our
distributor also being an
American company would
make our documentary have
more of an American appeal.
This would widen the
audience instead of only
appealing to a niche market.

6.  This is a convention
that we followed due
to the fact that our
documentary only
features 3 main
interviewees. This
would give the
audience a form of
personal identity even
in a short period of
time.

7.  Even if we only have
3 main characters, our
documentary did not
have such a small
cast. We broke this
convention due to all
the people who sent
videos on what makes
them happy being a
part of our
documentary.

8.  This is a convention that we were
able to follow due to the fact that
the beginning where people state
what makes them happy and the
definition of happiness is seen is
the equilibrium stage. The
disequilibrium occurs during the
first and second interview as they
are talking about how happiness is
not as it seems and that
sustainable happiness is extremely
hard to achieve and not always a
good thing. The new equilibrium
starts from the interview with
Frederika up until the new
definition of happiness.

10.  This is a convention
that we followed due
to the fact that our
radio advert is only
around 40 seconds
long.

11.  This is another
convention that we
were able to follow
due to the fact that the
voice over in our
documentary is the
same as in our radio
advert. We did this to
ensure that there is a
clear link between the
documentary and the
radio advert.

12.  This is a convention that
we followed due to the
fact that all the different
voice overs heard were
from clips in our
documentary. I believe
that we chose the right
audio clips as they were
short yet informative
that would catch the
attention of our
audience fairly quickly.

13.  This is a convention
that we were able to
follow as our radio
advert states the title
of our documentary,
when and where it
can be viewed.
Therefore, proving the
audience with
information on our
documentary in a
short period of time.

14.  This is a convention that
we were able to follow
as the music bed heard
in our radio advert is
upbeat and happy to
link it to the subject of
happiness and
draw/keep the
attention of the
audience for them to
listen to what is being
said and most likely
remember it.

16.  Since the background of our
poster is a collage of pictures,
I would say that this is a
convention that we ended up
breaking. This is because we
don’t have just one focal
image, there are a variation,
especially since we made
there be 4 pictures that came
out of the collage beside the
title, with also the title being a
big focus point of the poster.
We did this because we want
the audience to understand
right away that the
documentary focuses on us as
a whole not just an individual
person.

17.  We were able to follow this
convention due to the fact
that our title is a big focal
point in our poster. The fact
that it is in the centre and
quite big reading ‘Chasing
Happiness’ immediately
suggest that the
documentary is about
happiness. Also the fact
that there is a collage of
pictures in the background
with four of them coming
out suggests that everyone
has their own perception
on happiness and what it
means to them

18.  We were able to follow
this convention by
including the question
when are we truly happy
right bellow the title. We
did this to give the
audience intellectual
pleasure as we are giving
them something to think
about and draw them to
wanting to get guidance to
figuring it out through our
documentary.

19.  This is a convention
that we were able to
follow due to the fact
that it is evident at the
bottom of our poster.
We needed to include
this to give credit to
all the people
responsible for
creating and being a
part of our
documentary.

20.  This is a convention that we
broke due to the fact that we
didn’t want the director to
be the reason for the
audience to watch the
documentary. It also did not
suit us because we were the
directors of our
documentary, therefore we
would not catch the
attention of the audience as
they would not even know
who we are. In other words,
we chose to break this
convention because we felt
that it wasn’t necessary.

21.  In a way, we were able to
follow this convention
due to the fact that we
included the three film
festivals that our
documentary will be a
part of at the top of our
poster. We did this to
show the audience that
the documentary has
been selected for the BFI,
Sheffield and Sundance
film festivals, so that they
would know where they
could see it.

22.  This is a convention that we
originally said we would
follow but that we actually
broke. This is because we felt
that it would be better to
include the film festivals
rather than quotes from the
documentary. We did not
want to have both because it
would lead to there being too
much going on in the poster
and there wasn’t any space
for these quotes. Also by
using a rhetorical question as
a tagline, we felt that it was all
we needed and would be
more effective in gaining the
interest of the audience.