The document compares the conventions used in the author's documentary to those used in the film "Supersize Me". Some conventions that both documentaries followed include using an opening title, vox pops from the general public, expert interviews in mid shots slightly to one side, facts and statistics, and background music. However, the author notes ways their documentary could be improved, such as making the title more graphic, interviewing a more diverse range of people, and being more creative with sounds. Overall, following conventions helped make their documentary seem professional for their target audience.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
Anisa Ilyas

2. To compare my documentary to an existing media
product I decided to do this comparison with
‘Supersize Me’. To compare the two I used various
screenshots from the opening 5 minutes of both
documentaries to demonstrate the conventions that
I have followed for our documentary. We used the
binary opposition proposed by Levi strauss so that
our target audience would be more interested, this
was the advantages and the disadvantages and we
thought that this would be ideal as we were doing a
circular narrative so people don’t need to come to a
conclusion and therefore this adds more interest.

4. TITLE
A major convention in documentaries is the use of
a title screen at the beginning of the documentary.
We followed this convention and decided to have
the main title at this point as it entered
dramatically and left you with a question that you
could reflect over throughout the documentary. I
looked at SuperSize Me an existing media product
and found that they also featured an opening title
segment showing the title of the documentary.
Something that I would have liked to change
about our documentary is the title screen, this is
because perhaps creating something more
graphical would have stood out more as it looks
aesthetically appealing. Although, after looking at
SuperSize Me’s opening title it isn’t very graphic
and all it has is a bit of colour, I think it would be
good to have something at the very beginning to
draw your attention in.

5. VOX POPS
Vox pop is the voice of the population and is a
key convention in documentaries. Similarly to
SuperSize Me our documentary also follows the
conventional use of using vox pop, this helps to
give a general opinion as to what the public has
to say on the topic of our documentary. Also,
the vox pops that we used for our documentary
are of the same age as our target audience so
our audience can feel that they can relate to the
opinion of the vox pop. We didn’t do any
planning or organisation for the vox pop except
for the questions so we found people who were
available without being biased. We did a
medium sot so that the background was visible.
In comparison to SuperSize Me, I felt that we
restricted ourselves to just asking people from
the college and not anyone else from the
general public whereas SuperSize Me had a
variety of people from different places.

6. VOICE OVER
The voice over within our documentary follows typical
conventions of a standard piece of narration. Through the
voice over we deliver information which relates to the topic,
facts and statistics and also rhetorical questions. We also
tried to mould the voice over around the clips that we had.
One thing that we had to consider when doing the voice over
was to make sure that we added enthusiasm. From
‘Supersize Me’ it was evident that Morgan Spurlock showed
enthusiasm in his voice and made us the viewers more
engaged with the documentary as he appeared to be very
genuine, this is something that we would like to replicate
through our voiceover. In our documentary we avoided the
convention of having an on screen narration this is because
we felt that having a presenter gives the documentary a
more formal look and we didn’t want that therefore had the
use of voiceover.

7. EXPERT INTERVIEW
A key convention in documentaries is the use of
experts. Experts are used to authenticate the views
expressed in the documentary. We followed the
conventions of having the expert in a mid shot and
on the right hand side of the frame, this is because
it gives the documentary a professional look. It is
clear by looking at the expert from SuperSize Me
that they have also opted for a mid shot and placed
the expert on the left hand side of the frame.
Another convention within expert interviews is that
the expert does not look into the camera, therefore
we told our experts to direct their eye line away
from the camera in order to give the add a
professional touch. Also, we placed the experts that
relates to their position for example for Julie it was

8. GRAPHICS
A typical feature that is
incorporated within interviews is
graphics. This is because it
informs the viewer who the
interviewee were and their also
tells them about their
occupation. We used this
convention when introducing
both our experts and we also
used White text in Ariel font so
that it could be easily read and
so that the audience know what
their importance was of the
topic.

9. FACTS & STATISTICS
Documentaries are made so that they can provide
facts and statistics about a topic, and is seen as a
convention in documentaries. We followed this and
added facts and statistics so that our documentary is
factual and so that we can support what we are
saying by using facts. This is an example of the uses
and gratification theory and why we had chosen to
have a circular narrative in order for our facts and
statistics to be portrayed in an unbiased way.
Looking at Supersize Me they had also used statistics
but on a much wider scale to how we did it, they
showed how trends changed over time, and perhaps
we could have done something that was also a bit
more interactive. In order to find the facts that were
suitable for our topic of discussion we researched
into the topic using secondary sources such as books
and the internet. However, an issue with secondary
sources is that you need to question the reliability of
the source. Therefore, an alternative way of us
providing facts was through the expert interviews.

10. ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE
Another convention of documentaries is the use of
archival footage. We used archival footage as it aids
authenticity and to add further information without
having to do any additional filming. We used two
different archival footages so that we could have a
variety, however we placed them next to each other
therefore I think if we spread them out they would
have had more of a meaning to them.

11. BACKGROUND SOUND
Background music is a convention in many documentaries
where the music plays throughout the documentary. We
followed this convention as it creates an atmosphere to the
documentary. The background music had to be simple and
not overpowering of the sound from the documentary. We
made our own music, and we used Garage band so that it
had simple beats like those that are used in documentaries.
The music worked effectively and once we put it in our
documentary it sounded just right as it didn’t dominate.
Also, we made sure that when we had the vox pop,
narration or expert interviews we faded the sound levels so
that what was being said was heard. However, Supersize
Me were very creative with their sound as they started off
with a song sang by little kids about fast foods, this is
something that will grab the attention of the viewer
immediately.

12. ACTUALITY
Actuality is the term for raw film footage of real
life events, places and people. We followed the
convention of having actuality in our
documentary as the events unfold in front of the
camera showing everyday life of people so that
the documentary looks realistic.

13. Overall, I think that we conformed to many of the
conventions that are used for documentaries,
but we also dismissed some for example not
having an on screen narration but this was
because we didn’t feel it would be appropriate to
use this. Following the conventions meant that
our documentary looked professional and
therefore would appeal more to our target
audience as they are aware of the expectations of
a typical documentary.