OCR A2 Media Studies Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

Behaviour Managing BritainBonnie Hartrey

My task.I was required to create a documentary film opening with a duration of 5 minutes.I learnt the codes and conventions of a documentary in order to help myself decide what to use in my documentary in order to make it an effective and enjoyable piece. I looked at the various codes and conventions in detail including Fly on the wall, Cinema verite, Voice overs, Narration, Archive footage, Re-enactments.

I watched multiple types of documentary films in order to give myself an idea of what could be used in my own piece. One of the documentary's I watched was the Imposter, which was within the thriller genre. I found that the imposter was an extremely gripping and enjoyable film. The film consists of a variety of talking head interviews in order to create a sense of realism and allow the audience to connect with what is being said. After watching this film I decided to use multiple talking head interviews in my own film order to create a sense of realism and allow the audience to see that the interviewee’s are genuine and passionate about what they say.

I set out to make a documentary, which was going to allow a lot of people to feel connected and relate to the topic, in order to allow my documentary to be effective and for people to recognise and appreciate the message that I was attempting to give.

I decided to make the documentary about school behaviour as it is a subject , which is continuously brought up in the media, as it becomes an increasing problem for majority of schools throughout the United Kingdom.

My documentary is extremely similar to documentary's like ‘Educating Essex’ and ‘Educating Yorkshire’ as they are programs, which are also about British schools and related to the behaviour in schools. They are also about how behaviour is an extremely important aspect of teaching, as it has a huge impact on children’s education in majority of schools because a students inability to behave in school and focus on their work affects the education of both the student who is misbehaving and ultimately anybody around them. For example close friends, class mates, and also teachers because having to deal with a students misconduct makes them incapable of doing their job as they are not able to educate other students in the class, whilst dealing with another students behaviour.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I used various tracks over sections of my documentary, which linked to the theme which was being explored. The reason behind me using this music was because music affects how a person thinks and feels and I wanted people to feel emotionally affected and connected to the documentary allowing the message to be stronger and more effective. For example, I added an inspirational track over the video footage and narration of a student who had made huge progress in allowing himself to overcome his bad behaviour and as a result his education is radically improving giving him a chance of attaining high grades in his GCSEs. I used inspirational audio I used over this section of the documentary in order to allow the audience to feel more emotionally affected by the students progress and to feel a sense of achievement has been made. I intentionally included George’s name and made his story personal in order to allow the audience to feel close with George so that they can feel affected by his progress and sense of achievement.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

What type of documentary is Behaviour managing Britain?

Behaviour managing

Britain

Expository

speaks directly to the viewer in an

authoritative commentary using voiceover or titles, proposing a strong

argument and point of view.

I use a rich and sonorous male voice, which I use as a voice-of-God narration. I was originally

going to use my own voice in my documentary, however a male

voice is usually used for documentary, as it is a much more

powerful and stronger voice of authority than a young women’s voice. I believed that this impact

of the male voice would make him appear much more reliable and

trustworthy to the audience because of the strong impact his

narration had.

Observational

It observes real life.

I also included voice-over commentary, dialogue,

music, and re-enactments, which our observational

techniques. Observational documentary is usually

aimed at individual human character in ordinary life

situations, which is included in my documentary as it is

about the behaviour in British Schools, which

appears to be an ongoing issue in Britain.

Voice of authority Voice of God narration