2. What our coursework involved?
For our A2 coursework we worked in groups to
produce a short opening to a documentary.
Accompanying this main task we also had to
produce a magazine article and a radio trailer
that advertised our product. Before we started
anything we had to work together to research
documentaries and then plan our work.
3. Evaluation questions
Question 1: In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Question 2: How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary tasks?
Question 3: What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
Question 4: How did you use media
technologies in the construction and research
planning and evaluation stages?
4. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
6. Q
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Documentary modes
One mode was the expository mode. Known as the ‘voice
of god’ this mode is what we identify with
documentaries. The expository mode often uses a
narrator and emphasises verbal commentary. It addresses
the spectator directly using titles and voices that
themselves argue a point, propose a perspective or
recount history. An example in everyday life of this mode
of documentary would be Television News programming.
Some expository documentaries that use voice of God
commentary find it useful because it judges actions
portrayed through images on the screen without being
caught up in them.
7. Q
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Documentary modes
The most artistic of documentary modes is the
poetic mode which is an expression and also
subjective. These documentaries tend to stress
the emotional and lyrical aspects of the world.
This documentary type is not as mainstream as
some of the others as it sacrifices filmic
conventions like continuity and editing to
explore associations between images, objects
and patterns.
8. Q
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Documentary modes
The observational mode is seen to be the
window on the world and attempts to observes
aspects of the world as they happen. These
documentaries' typically have no voiceover, nor
music or sound and also no behaviour repeated
for the camera nor interviews. Social actors
behave as if no filmmakers were there.
9. Q
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Documentary modes
The Participatory Mode involves an on screen
presenter and involves an interview between
filmmaker and the subject. In this mode the
filmmaker is able to address people who appear
in the film as apposed to addressing the
audience through voice-over commentary. This
his gives the audience a sense of what it is like
for the filmmaker to be in a given situation and
how that situation alters as a result.
10. Q
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Documentary modes
Having the spectator the focus of attention is a
convention of the reflexive mode. These
documentaries are set out to re-adjust peoples
expectations and assumptions. It relies on
techniques that are intended to shock the
spectator and sever our engagement with the
film so that we are forced to think about
filmmaking as a construct
11. Q
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Documentary modes
The performative mode involves the filmmaker
as a participant of the documentary. This mode
of documentary raises questions and sets out to
demonstrate how you – the audience – provide
entry into an understanding of the more general
processes at work in society. Throughout these
documentaries tone and mood are stressed
from the perspective of the filmmaker who
primarily addresses the spectator.
12. Q
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Participatory Documentary
Our documentary followed the participatory mode
it involved an on screen presenter. It also involved
interviews between the subject and the on screen
presenter following the typical conventions of a
participatory documentary. This mode of
documentary involves addressing the audience
with a voice over which we also do. These features
give the audience a sense of what it is like for the
filmmaker to be in the situation also, meaning
they may approach the documentary with more of
an open mind. And it also how the situation alters
as a result.
13. Q
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D
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On screen presenter
Unlike many documentaries ours had an on screen presenter. We
developed this idea after watching ‘Super Size Me’ directed by Morgan
Spurlock. This documentary was exploring quite a serious
topic, however with Morgan Spurlock also acting as the on screen
presenter this serious topic took a more humorous approachable tone.
This is something we wanted to achieve in our documentary which is
why we decided to have a charismatic on screen presenter. With the
addition of this on screen presenter we challenged typical health
documentary conventions, as usual they do not have an on screen
presenter just a narrator an example of this would be Gary Null’s War
on Health. As you can see however not only subverts typical
conventions it also reinforces them as
Super Size Me uses an on-screen
presenter.
14. Q
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D
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Interviews
All of the interviews we included in our
documentary reinforce the typical
conventions of a documentary. The
interviewees were all looking away from
the camera towards the person asking
the question. This feature is present in
many documentaries including Super
Size Me and this technique is used in
formal recorded interviews. We used it
to show that the importance of the
questions as the interviewee was always
focused on the content of the question
in order to answer efficiently.
The arrows on the pictures indicate where the interviewee is
looking, you can see that they are not looking directly at the
camera, and especially in the last one that they are making
direct eye contact with the interviewer.
15. Q
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Super Size me
Interviews
Our documentary uses the typical
conventions
of
documentary
interviews. These involve the
direction of the eyes of the
interviewees they are looking
adjacent from the camera towards
the interviewer. Another convention
we use is setting. The setting of each
interview relates to the participant
of the interview. As they are formal
interviews we tried to match the
mise en scene with the interviewees
job description.
Our Documentary
16. Q
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Voxpops
Our voxpops were subjective rather
than objective. We made sure that
participants involved were not misled
by questions and opinions as people
often are in documentaries. We also
made sure that our voxpops were not
biased towards our opinions. This
challenges most documentaries
because we portrayed both points of
view. This challenged documentaries
like Morgan Spurlocks Super Size Me
because throughout Super Size Me
voxpops supported Spurlocks
viewpoint.
17. Q
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Titles
We used conventions of documentaries in our
documentary by using titles to introduce interviewees
of formal interviews. This was a useful way of ensuring
that the spectator knew the interviewee and added the
benefit of the audience knowing their job title. This was
convenient because they could see for themselves how
our chosen interviewees were relevant to our chosen
topic. As you can see from the pictures to the right this
was a convention used in Super Size Me and one we also
used. We followed the convention of having the title
aligned left and made the name of the interviewee
slightly larger than the job title. However we challenged
Super Size Me’s conventions by making our titles have a
bold slightly transparent purple backdrop. We used this
because it made the names and job titles stand out. We
also placed the titles in the lower third to ensure that
audiences could still see the scene.
19. Q
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Credits
Alike to Super Size Me
at the end of our
documentary we put
transition credits.
However we
developed this feature
by instead od having a
plain black background
we had a picture that
related to our
documentary itself.
20. Q
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Shock factor
We developed a convention
used by Morgan Spurlock to add
a ‘shock factor’ to our
documentary. Many studies
show that for the impact on the
spectator to be great the use of
visual techniques should be
shocking. Spurlock uses this in
Super Size Me through showing
the different sized cups
available in McDonalds. We
developed this idea further by
using salt and showed out
audience how much salt was in
a McDonalds meal compared to
how much salt they were
reccomended daily.
21. Q
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Shaped around Public Opinion
Unlike many documentaries our documentary is
not based upon our opinions it is however based
up on the publics. We challenged the usual
biased documentaries like Super Size Me and
made sure all our opinions were from different
peoples public opinions.
22. Q
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Camera, Cinematography
Unlike Super Size Me our documentary
challenged participatory documentaries by not
using a hand held camera. We challenged this
convention because our documentary was not
following the on screen presenter around all
day. Our documentary was a lot more
sophisticated in terms of camera work.
23. Q
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Camera, Cinematography
Establishing shot: The use of
an establishing shot is essential
in many forms of media
including documentaries. We
used an establishing shot of
Solihull Sixth form in order to
show our audience the location
of our documentary. Also
because our target audience
was at students we thought
they could identify with the
shot of the school/college
because they may have been
to one at some point.
24. Q
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Mise en scene
As our documentary was aimed at students we
decided that it would be best to keep our
documentary as informal as possible so our
audience was able to identify with the
scenes, ideas and on screen presenter.
25. Q
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Mise en scene
One of the main ways we
supported Super Size Me’s
convention of informal
approaches was the dress
code of our on screen
presenter we kept his attaire
simple; jeans and a t-shirt.
This was developed because
our on screen presenter was
also a student. This meant
that our target audience was
able to identify with the
presenter and thus identify
with the issues we were
discussing.
26. Q
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Mise en scene
We felt it was important to
reinforce the convention in
keeping the background relevant
to the documentary. This is used
in many documentaries including
Super Size Me. We thought that
keeping relevant background
footage would ensure that the
audience members were
consistently thinking about our
topic.
28. Q
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M
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Using Typical Conventions
This headline shows the
main themes of the
article and essentially
what it includes. This is
used in all magazines to
show the spectator
what they want.
Main article
Social media icons
represent where
the reader can
access more
information.
This box is used to
display how the
audience will access
the documentary.
This stand first displays
to the reader an
overview of what the
article is about.
Dominant image
attracts the readers
attention.
Pull quote s attract the
readers attention.
The radio times logo
used to reinforce the
magazine and the page
number is also on the
side.
ALSO: as you can tell overall the house
style is red, black and white and a
conventional feature of a magazine.
Screen shots of the
documentary
intrigue the reader
and give them an
insight into the
documentary. Also
there will be picture
credits underneath.
29. Q
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T
I
O
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Using Typical Conventions
Heading
emphasising
scenes.
Pictures give
another insight
into the article and
what the article is
about. Picture
captions explain
what is going on.
O
N
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M
A
G
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Z
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N
E
Main heading
lets the
audience know
what is
happening
The stand
first lets the
audience
know what
the article is
about.
Page
numbers
Main article
Radio times
logo and
page number
31. Q
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Developing Typical Conventions
We added a contrasting
background to emphasise
where the reader can
watch the documentary.
The use of social media
icons draw the readers
attention towards it and
make them want to
look into it and find out
more information. We
also reinforced where
they can watch the
documentary and
when.
33. Q
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M
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Challenging Typical Conventions
The layout of our
magazine article subverts
typical conventions of a
magazine. As the
dominant picture is on the
right hand side. I thought
of putting it here because
we read from left to right
and the way the arm
curves leads the eyes back
on to the page and back
into the article. The title is
also not as dominant but
stands out through the use
of bold capitalised font.
34. Q
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Radio Trailer
To research radio trailers we looked at previous
student trailers and also existing radio trailers to
find out the typical conventions of radio trailers.
It was especially useful when listening to the
student radio trailer seeing whether or not they
had reinforced or subverted these conventions.
37. Q
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A
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Student Radio Trailer
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SIMILARITES:
Used music throughout
Had a voice over
Used interview and voxpop sound bites
States when and what channel the
documentary is on
DIFFERENCES:
- States different points of view strongly
and goes into some detail about both
sides of the argument where as ours
states facts to intrigue the audience
- Starts with a sentence explaining what
their documentary is about where as
ours starts with a group of phrases
that are related to our topic.
Click to listen
CHALLENGES:
We challenged this radio trailer by NOT
having a consistent voice over. We felt that
it was more approachable and intriguing if
the audience had to think about what they
were hearing. Rather than being told out
right, they had to make connections
themselves. We also felt that having a
strong phrase at the start as opposed to a
sentence explaining our documentary gave
it a subtle serious tone as if there was no
time for irrelevant self explanatory words.
This kept it fast paced which is a feature
we desperately needed to keep our target
audience - students - interested.
38. Q
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T
I
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Student Radio Trailer 2
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O
N
E
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R
A
D
I
O
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T
R
A
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L
E
R
-
SIMILARITES:
Used music throughout
Had a voice over specifically at the end like
ours is
Uses mainly archived sound from interview
and voxpop sound bites of differing
opinions, at the start until the voice over, like
we did
States when and what channel the
documentary is on
The only voice over narration was at the end
and it stated when and where this was on.
DIFFERENCES:
There were few differences between our
documentary and this one. However there
was one which was that the content of this
trailer included mainly peoples opinions
where as a large section of ours was
quotations from an anorexia website.
Click to listen
DEVELOPMENTS:
We imitated the use of overlapping
archived sound from our interviews
and voxpops in this but also used a
collection of anorexia quotations that
were at the start of our documentary.
