GENRE EVALUATION PRODUCTION

1. Genre Conventions
SIGNED
Jake Bird

2.  We took some aspects of each documentary convention
Location shooting – using hand-held cameras.
The vast majority of footage used within the production was hand
held as it created a more familiar feature for the unsigned bands
which we were covering.
Long takes dominate.
We used long takes during performance as it gave the audience a
deeper insight to the content and artists which we were covering,
 Synchronous (direct) sound recording.
 No voiceover (in its purest form).
 Documentary-maker’s presence is hidden.
 Subjects pretend that they are not being filmed.
Observational conventions

3.  Documentary-maker (and crew) interacts with the subject.
 I personally interacted with each artist which we interviews, this was done to
get a more honest reaction and so I could bounce question off their responses
 Interviews dominate but tend to be informal – literally ‘on the run’ questioning.
 We kept our interviews quite relaxed yet still on the formal side, this was due to
time constraints. However we always had informal chats with artists before the
interview to see what type of answer they were responding with.
 Use of archive material – stills, news footage, newspaper headlines, letters etc.
 We used still archived facts within our documentary to inform the audience of
the situation which unsigned acts face.
 Location shooting; hand-held camera.
 90% of our production was shot hand held, this suited perfectly to what we
were trying to achieve as it made our production more personal and rough
around the edges, just like unsigned acts. Yet it still maintained a professional
manner.
Participatory conventions

4. Our documentary perhaps fits into this convention the best due to the many characteristics
which it shares with it:
CODES & CONVENTIONS OF THE EXPOSITORY MODE OF DOCUMENTARY:
 Interviews
 Our documentary mainly features interviews in order to present honest and real information
to the audience from real people within the music industry – we wanted to show each artists
opinion of their experiences within the signing process.
 Spoken word is more important than the image - image is there to support argument
 We developed this concept by focusing on sound bridging audio, we thought that the
audience would remain interested if their was montage footage on show, yet will still be
listening to audio response from interviews. The montage is their to support what each artist
is saying. E.g.: Footage of young girl preforming whilst Jersey talks about a young
generation starting out at venues such as The Shed.
 Evidentiary editing
 This proved important to further our documentary’s central argument rather than working
to preserve the traditional narrative found in fiction film editing, we used the editing to go
against the traditional thought that you have to be signed.
Expository conventions

5.  Music
 Being evidently the subject of our documentary, Music choice was important, we decided to
select new material from each artist rather than their ‘popular’ tracks as that went against
what we were trying to achieve regarding the whole documentary. We wanted to fill close to
all of the documentary with music whether it was in the background or foreground – we felt
this was important when familiarising the audience with our artists.
 Addresses viewer directly
 In our interviews the artists are addressing the interviewer directly, as the artist is speaking
to the camera, we wanted to make it seem like they are talking directly to the audience.
 Informing logic
 We wanted to inform the audience about the logic which goes against being signed, these
facts that are usually hidden.
 Illustrative graphics & animations
 We used an animation as a key aspect within the documentary, with it both reflecting the
importance of social media and attracting the audience via creativity which was put in
through creating the graphic.
Expository conventions

6.  Intertitles or captions
 By using smaller question/topic headers we were able to remove a voice over as it appeared
more effective to use these frames instead.
 impression of objectivity or well-supported argument
 As all three of our artists agreed with the argument which we were putting forth it made it
seem more logically sound, their emotion which is conveyed helps strengthen this.
 Good for conveying information or mobilizing support
 The main reason we chose this convention to follow mainly is as it helps to convey
information which was our main idea. We want to inform an audience which otherwise may
know little about the struggle which unsigned artists face.
Expository conventions