Our documentary follows conventions of real documentary films through its use of a mixed style incorporating interviews, narration, and observation. It has a single, linear theme of exploring ice cream - its popularity, production process, health effects, and branding - told through a chronological narrative. We pay close attention to the mise-en-scene, eye line, cutaways, archive material, graphics, voiceover, and sound bed to maintain relevance to the topic and keep the audience engaged, mirroring techniques used in documentaries like "Saving Thailand's Animals."

1. Evaluation-
Documentary
Question 1: In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?

2. Type of documentary
The style of our documentary is mixed as it includes a
combination of interviews, narration and observation
as this helps to display our message clearly to the
audience and follows codes and conventions of other
documentaries as one I analysed ‘The Art of
Deception’ is also a mixed documentary and we have
followed the aspects similar to this documentary

3. Themes
Our documentary is in chronological order meaning
it is linear and has a closed narrative as the
message at the end is clear. The themes discussed
within our documentary are the popularity of ice
cream, how ice cream is made, the health effects
and branding of ice cream with the overall theme
being ice cream and the truth behind it hence our
title ‘the delicious truth’. Our documentary is
single strand as it has this overall theme which
links to codes ad conventions of other
documentaries as they are usually single strand.

4. Mise en scene
For the mise en scene we paid close attention to the surroundings and
settings within each location and made sure that it was relevant to the
theme and topics suggested as this is what most documentaries follow
such as Saving Thailand’s Animals. We had some initial issues with some of
our first shots not having relevant mise en scene but we resolved this by
carefully planning out the interview shots so we could be successful. I
have shown relevance of the topic through mise en scene by thinking
about the background of the video for instance, below is a screenshot of
one of our interviews in which we made sure that the background was of
the ice cream cafe as our topic was of ice cream and different flavours so
this created relevancy of the whole theme of the documentary.

5. Eye line
Following codes and conventions of other professional documentaries we made sure
the eye line followed the rule of thirds and the interviewee was never looking
directly at the camera but at the interviewer and at a diagonal angle. We also had
problems with this within one of our first interviews but resolved this by practising
the angle and perfecting it before we continued to re-film. Using the rule of thirds
means that the audiences eyes have to follow the object, which is a person in this
case, instead of just focusing their eyes in the centre throughout the whole scene
which can create boredom. So we have counteracted this by keeping the audience
interested as they are able to focus on different parts of the screen. I have used
Saving Thailand’s Animals documentary as a comparison to my own documentary.

6. Cutaways
Following codes and conventions of other documentaries we found that many
cutaways were used even whilst interviewees were talking so as to create
relevance to what they were talking about. For example, when talking
about favourite flavours in our documentary we made sure to get a
cutaway of the massive board they had at Cheshire Ice Cream Farm
containing all the flavours they had. Cutaways, like the rule of thirds, cease
boredom and keep the audience interested as their is more to look at and
creates relevancy to the topic instead of just the interviewee of voiceover
speaking their is a cutaway to relate to what is being spoken about. I have
again used Saving Thailand’s Animals as a comparison documentary

7. Archive material
Again, following codes and conventions we used archive material
which again creates relevance to what the interviewee or
narrator was talking about and links to the theme and topics
being discussed within the documentary. This also makes it
more interesting as using different cuts keeps the audience
engaged and want to keep watching hence our reasoning to
sticking to these conventions and including them in our
documentary.

8. Graphics
Using codes and conventions of professional documentaries and referring to
Saving Thailand’s Animals as a comparison, I have used graphics on the
screen in the form of the interviewees name and occupation. This is
important as it creates relevancy and gives them an identity, it also enables
the audience to identify who they are and what relevance they have to the
topic and what they are actually discussing.

9. Voiceover
• We have used a voiceover within our documentary to relate
to other professional documentaries and follow codes and
conventions of documentaries. A voiceover is important as it
creates a narrative and a story line for the documentary and
makes it flow easily, it also helps the storyline progress as it
can transition one topic to the other by use of discussion and
comparison.

10. Sound Bed
A sound bed is used to create a theme or mood of the documentary for
example a happy tune would connote a happier, positive message or
theme. Using codes and conventions of professional documentaries, I have
included a sound bed within the title sequence so as to set the initial tone
of the documentary which is of a happier note as ice cream connotes
happiness and people eat it to be happy whereas later on throughout the
documentary the topic changes to a more negative note of the bad effects
on health which we have used to link in with the title of ‘The Delicious
Truth’ and aim to ‘expose’ the truth.