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

2. We followed the codes and conventions of a TV documentary by
firstly using simple cuts as this wont distract the audience from
the subject matter. Moreover, we included still images and
zooming in, we did this because not only does it follow the codes
and conventions but by zooming in on a picture it makes it more
entertaining for the audience.

3. Another thing that we did that follows the codes and
conventions was cutaways, we used this to break up interviews
and it also avoids jump cuts as the questions were edited out.

4. Moreover, when we interviewed someone it was always about the
subject matter (fear) and we edited out all the questions asked so it
was like the person being interviewed was telling a story. Also in
terms of framing of the interview we always placed them either to
the left or the right of the screen, and we also put them on a
normal chairs not computer chairs as we didn’t want the person
being interviewed to move and distract the audience from what
was being said. This follows the codes and conventions of a TV
documentary.

6. Moreover, we used the mise-en-scene of the interviews to tell the
audience what their relevance is to the subject matter. In addition, we
did not use any handheld camera footage, this is because of the
subject matter of our documentary and we didn’t need to react
quickly to any of the events that happened during our documentary.
Furthermore we didn’t use any particular regional accent on the
voiceover as our topic relates to people all over the globe. We used
Standard English as our subject matter was serious and not comical.
Moreover we used middle aged male for our voiceover as we thought
that it would be most appropriate to our subject matter.

7. Our documentary was single strand and non liner as we only
focused on one subject matter, fear. In terms of graphics we
followed the codes and conventions as the text was two lines
and the first line was the name of the person being interviewed
and the second was their relevance to the topic, we also made
the names bigger, with simple text and color that is consistent
throughout. This follows the codes and conventions of a TV
documentary.

8. When talking about the title sequence we made ours very
interesting and creative as it is very simple yet extremely
effective. There is three main parts to our title sequence, the
first is a boy looking from left to right in a fearful way.

9. The second part is another male with sweat dripping down his
forehead, this cannotes the fact that someone is fearful, this
creates effect on the audience as they anticipate what is going
to be shown on screen next.

10. The last shot of the title sequence is the spider walking from left to
right on the screen and as the spider walks past the title ‘Cold
Sweat’ appears on the screen. This is an interesting shot and as
spiders are the most common fear it is bound to get the audience
going even before the documentary has started. This anchors the
audience to the documentary.

11. Also the music used relates to the subject matter as
we used Kings Of Leon ‘crawl’ in our montage to
cannote the fact that spiders crawl. Also it keeps in
time with the montage that we have created.

12. When talking about our radio trailer the content of the trailer
follows the codes and conventions. This is because it catches the
audiences attention therefore making them want to watch the
documentary which is the purpose for a radio trailer. The radio
trailer mentions the scheduling time ‘cold sweat Monday at 9 on
BBC one’ and it also ends with the channel name, which follows
the codes and conventions of a radio trailer.
The script that we have used in the radio trailer makes the
audience think a lot about the subject and it entices them to
watch the documentary. The voiceover also uses personal
pronouns such as ‘you’ this intrigues the audience and it makes it
personal. Also in the radio trailer we have used clips from the
documentary such as the vox pops which grabs the audiences
attention. We have also used sound effects which relate to the
subject matter, as we have a heart beat getting faster. This
cannotes fear. Lastly we have used the same slogan that we used
on the newspaper advert as it relates to the topic and it gets the
audience thinking.4

13. Moreover for the newspaper advert we use the dimensions
from the channel 4 website so the was the right size which is A4
and landscape. There is also one main image which attracts the
audience. Which is a male looking to his top left with sweat
dripping from his face to show the fact that he is fearful of
something. Then there is a snake coming in from the top left
and the snake and the boy both have eye contact with each
other. We did this because this creates a powerful image which
is going to frighten people when they see the advert which is
the whole point of the newspaper advert. The text on the
advert includes, a slogan, title and the scheduling information.
The logo of the BBC is also on the advert. All of this follows the
codes and conventions of a radio trailer.