This document discusses the conventions of documentary films and how the media product "Café Nation" adheres to them. It is classified as a "mixed documentary" that uses observation, interviews, and narration. It follows a beginning, middle, end structure and only covers the introduction in the first five minutes. Key conventions used include title cards, interviews following the rule of thirds and using lower thirds, vox pops, music, and narration. Cutaways and archive footage are utilized to split up interviews and provide context. The documentary does not significantly deviate from standard conventions in order to provide a comfortable viewing experience for its target audience.

1. In what way does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
Evaluation: ‘Café Nation’

2. Mixed Documentary
In order to be classed as a documentary our
program must meet certain basic criteria which
set it apart from other genres such as Drama or
Current Events programming.
Our product falls into the sub genre of “Mixed
Documentary” combining observation, interview
and narration to convey the exposition (line of
argument) to our audience.
The also must be set out with a Beginning –
Middle – End format, introducing the topic,
presenting conflicting views, and then concluding
the film, summarizing everything discussed. As
our task was to produce the first five minutes, we
only needed to introduce the subject by
discussing coffee, giving general information
about the consumption in the UK. We then
choose to introduce the possible health issues
with drinking coffee as a means of presenting
apposing views, allowing the audience to decide
for themselves their own stand point by the end of
the full half hour documentary.
All documentaries despite
subgenre or topic will have a title
card which clearly show the name
of the documentary as well as
giving some information about the
content. Ours uses browns and
creams related to coffee and
popular in the questionairres we
conducted, and part of the
sequence involves steam rising
from a kettle, a convention of
making a ‘cuppa’

3. Interviews
At the heart of any documentary film is the
interview, sitting down with someone who’s
opinion is relevant to the exposition and
asking them questions about the topic you
want to discuss.
Our interviews focus mainly on coffee
vendors and what they believe is the reason
behind the popularity growth of coffee
chains in the UK
It is important to keep mise en scene in mind
when conducting interviews as what is in
the background conveys a certain theme.
We recorded our interviews in the places
where these people worked as that is what
they were discussing.
We decided against the use of a green
screen which features in many
documentaries especially those with a
technology focused subject matter. We
wanted to show “real people” in real-life
situation, something which is against the
use of a doctored background image
Use of chroma keying
in Lara Croft
documentary

4. Rule of Thirds Any interview should be filmed
so that the eye-line and face
match the rule of thirds, lining
up with the cross in the top
right or left corners.
Within the bottom third of the
screen should appear an aptly
named ‘lower third title’
displaying the name of the
person and their role in the
documentary.
We used a simple font, carrying
through the browns and
creams and using a coffee
bean graphic. The simplicity of
this does not distract the
attention of the audience from
what is being said.

5. VoxPops
A useful technique
deployed by many
documentary makers to
provide fast, effective and
real public answers to
questions, giving a range
of opinions representing
a wide pool of people.

6. Music
By including the convention of
music into the documentary, it
made the opening title much
more interesting a upbeat
than without. We chose “The
Coffee Song” by Frank
Sinatra as this was very
relevant to the content and
had a beat that was neither
too fast for the editing to be
matched to, or too slow as to
make it boring or disinterest
an audience member.

7. A constant narrator helps to keep the flow of interviews smooth, leading the
audience from one section to the next, summarizing the arguments put
forward and introducing the next theme to be discussed. We choose to use a
woman that featured in the middle of our target audience, as we felt this
would give the audience some familiarity with the voice, making a
connection to the person, and as a result the documentary.
However unlike some documentaries such as those of Louis Theroux, ours’
took a ‘voice of God’ approach, the narrator never appearing onscreen as is
the case in the award-winning Channel 4 documentary series “Educating
Yorkshire”
Narration

8. Cutaways & Archive Footage
Both of theses conventions are used in order to split up lengthy
interview sections and anchor meaning to what is being said,
giving the audience context and hopefully explaining further
technical or unfamiliar terms by showing them visually.
Our audience members are likely to want a more exciting time
watching television than listening to a single or several people
discussing one subject, by making the imagery change often,
but not too often as to be a distraction from the content.

9. Defying convention
Ultimately we choose not to sway from convention too much as
this would not be something our target audience would expect.
Although the lower-end of the 25-60 year old boundary would
appreciate a shocking and drastic move away from the norm.
Our aim was to make comfortable experience, much like
drinking coffee, by watching our documentary without
overstressing them and hopefully imparting a new perspective
on the household drink.