1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
2. My media product does not develop or
challenge the forms and conventions of a
real media product. The product follows
these conventions in order to be at a
professional standard.
3. For example, like most of the
documentaries I have
analysed, before the construction of
my own product, it is single
stranded. This means it has only
one narrative and is simple to
follow.
4. Interviews
When filming interviews, me and my group made sure that we
followed the forms of a documentary;
• Positioning the interviewee to left or right hand side of the
frame and filming them in a medium shot, medium close up
or a close up shot.
• Making sure their eyes where 1/3 of the way down the page.
• I also positioned the graphics with their name and relevance
to the interview on the other side of the frame.
5. The image on the left is an interview from a professional documentary, the image on the
right is an interview taken from my own documentary.
As you can see, both interviewees are looking at the interviewer and not directly at the
camera that is filming them, and neither of them are filmed with a bright light behind
them which would be hard for us to see them.
6. • Like a professional documentary we also used cutaways
to disguise jump cuts that could make our
documentary look un-professional. Cutaways can also
separate interviews to break up the bulk. The cutaways
are relevant to what the interviewee is talking about.
The images on the
left show how a
cutaway has been
used in a professional
documentary. The
images on the right
show how I have
used a cutaway in my
documentary to avoid
a jump cut.
7. • Most of our cutaways were to separate long
interviews so that our audience remained
interested.
8. Editing
Cut was the most common edit me and my
group used when editing our
documentary, we used cut to take out the
questions from our interviews like
professional products. The viewer could not
see this edit unless it was used purposely for
example, a montage effect.
The images above are examples of how we used editing effects to create a montage of
archive footage in our documentary.
9. Camerawork
Similar to professional productions we used a
variety of shots that were as creative as
possible. Like real products we also used a
camera on a static tripod when filming.
The image on the left is taken from a professional documentary, the image on the
right is taken from my own documentary, both showing creativity in camerawork.
10. When filming our interviews we made sure the
mise-en-scene was relevant to the topic of our
documentary.
Psychologist
Jaws
Documentary
11. We filmed archive footage with movement so it
was more interesting for the audience. This
also follows conventions of a real product. For
example we zoomed and panned when filming
magazines.
12. My documentary also included the following
conventions of a real product;
• It contained a voiceover which was standard
English, which was clear and understandable and
spoke with a calm tone like that in a professional
documentary which held the narrative together.
• A relevant music bed which did not interfere with
any dialogue in our documentary.
• Correct sound levels
• Used a variety of relevant material in the
documentary.
13. Overall, these examples show how I have
followed the forms and conventions of a real
media product to produce a professional
standard of work in my documentary I
produced.
14. Print Advert
• Like a real product my print advert (right) which is
a versatile shape that can be scaled to any size.
This means it could be scaled to fit a billboard
which is another great way to advertise my
product.
It also contains one main image with the slogan anchoring the meaning on the image.
They both contain the scheduling and the channel 4 logo. The logo is important as it gives
the channels identity.
15. Radio Advert
Like a professional radio trailer, my trailer
contained;
• Scheduling at the end of the trailer
• Music Bed
• Contains slogan Screen grab of our trailer on the timeline
• Intrigues the audience
• Contains clips from the
• documentary
16. Overall this shows how I have followed the
codes and conventions of a professional
product. I have referred back to the
conventions throughout the production of my
media products.
By doing this I feel that my documentary and
ancillary texts are up to a professional
standard.
