1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Tom Hogan 2. The Brief The Brief for our A2 coursework was to create the first 5 minutes of a documentary intended to be exhibited on television. Along with this we where also tasked with creating two ancillary products to assist the publicity of the film; these where a 30 second radio trailer and a double page spread article in a listings magazine. When creating our documentary we had an hour long documentary in mind, as is conventional with most television documentaries so we concluded ours with a coming up next segment, intriguing the audience and making them want to watch the rest of the film. Bearing this in mind we did some research into made for TV documentaries, more specifically the first 5 minutes of these programmes. The Documentary We studied a Panorama documentary, with a very similar topic to ours however didnt find it very engaging and to serious. The programme certainly informed me however didnt entertain me or keep me hooked on a topic I myself am very interested in. The other members of my group also felt similar finding the documentary far to serious. We found this a common trend when researching actually, especially when looking at documentaries about video games affecting violence or anti-socialness. Even student documentaries we looked at took a very serious approach. We however didnt want this, we wanted to educate as well as entertain and wanted to do something a lot more light hearted and fun while still making serious points. One documentary we watched however which did something similar was Morgan Spurlocks Super Size Me 3. Super Size Me indeed focused on a different topic than our own film, centring around fast food rather than video games however was much more light hearted and entertaining than some of the Panorama documentaries we had studied. Spurlock used wit and humour to engage his audience however still made very serious and hard hitting points. The trailer for this documentary showcases the points Im talking about click here to watch it Another factor we liked about Super Size Me was its use of the Participatory mode. Every documentary is different and therefore there are different modes for a documentary. Observational documentaries for example are very removed, being fly on the wall films and observing events while they happen, an example of an Observational film would be Gimme shelter which features no narrator what so ever, (Gimme Shelter trailer). A participatory documentary however has the film maker appear in his/her own documentary, expressing their views to the camera. It could also be considered a Performative documentary which is a much more personal film often telling the film makers own story and having them directly involved in the film somehow. This type of documentary appealed to me and the rest of my group especially because most documentaries we studied where expository with an omnificent voice over and no on screen narrator. We decided that we would carry out some audience research to get our target audiences opinion and we found that the majority preferred participatory documentaries with on screen narrators. This lead us to our decision to go against the curve and make our documentary fun, humorous and have an on screen narrator. 4. We decided after watching documentaries like Super Size Me and Bowling for Columbine we wanted an on screen narrator. However after consideration we decided to challenge convention and use two on screen narrators, almost as a double act similar to that of Ant & Dec. This is something we hadnt seen in any documentaries we had watch however after testing the idea out we felt it worked. The back and forth between the presenters created humour and disarmed the audience, using presenters the same age of our target audience encouraged the audience to relate to them and listen to what they are saying. The back and forth banter between the hosts added comical elements to the film without taking away from it and gave it a lighter tone. This idea challenges convention however I feel it really worked in our documentary. Despite being found in documentaries like Super Size Me or Bowling for Columbine having a more comical style in our documentary was an unconventional choice. As previously mentioned most other films on similar topics had been very serious. However I am confident that taking a humorous style was the right choice. 5. Despite these few divisions from convention however the documentary on the whole was very conventional. When researching into documentaries we found that in the majority there is a good mix between vox pop interviews with members of the public and expert interviews. I feel that we used a good mix in our documentary having our vox pop interviews almost in a montage, with quick answers and having our expert interviews more informative and longer. When filming our vox pops we wanted to use a range of backgrounds and environments similar to what would be found in a professional documentary. We did this by filming a portion in the town center and a portion at Solihull Sixth Form. These locations also link in with our target audience. When filming we made sure we followed convention following the rule of thirds. Below is an example of one of our vox pops compared to one from Super Size Me. Super Size Me Whos Complaining about Video Gaming 6. We also followed convention when filming our expert interviews, again sticking close to the rule of thirds. We also introduced our experts with on screen titles, a technique found in most professional documentaries Sound is also a crucial part of any documentary, in every documentary I studied there was underline background music. In most documentaries different segments have different tracks appropriate to that specific section. This is something I believe we achieved successfully in our documentary. Throughout the film we used 4 different tracks. The first track we created on Garage Band and placed it over our opening to have an exciting and intriguing start to our documentary. The subsequent three tracks where stock, non copyright tracks however I feel they fit perfectly in our film. Using the pen tool in Premier to up and lower the audio so we had a perfect balance. We also used one of the same tracks used in the documentary in the radio trailer. We also recorded voice over, this acted as narration introducing the topic and reading out stats and statistics, this couldn'tt be done on camera as we wanted to show certain footage over certain sections of narration. We used the voice over as more of a narration and used the on screen presenter sections as transitions to new segments and also for comic relief. 7. Another convention we followed was the inclusion of stats and statistics. We did this by speeding up an image of shoppers entering the Video Game retailer GAME to illustrate the point made that video games are incredibly possible. On top of this we added the text on a transparent white background with voice over reading the stats out. Whos Complaining about video gaming? Video Games The Movie The Magazine When creating the Magazine article I feel that we didn'tt break from convention at all. Following convention we produced a Question and Answer article in a similar tone to the documentary adding elements of humor but ultimately promoting our documentary. When producing our magazine we looked at many different examples from magazines such as The Radio Times and Game Pro. One convention we decided to follow was the use of pull quotes, these broke up the text in our article and helped entice readers to read the whole article. Game Pro Whos Complaining about Video Gaming 8. Another addition to our magazine was our main image and secondary image. The main image we used was a screenshot from our actual documentary showcasing the dual presenters. The secondary image we decided to take with a camera, it was originally intended to be our main image however due to layout issues it worked better in the actual article. The image shows that the documentary wont be entirely serious and adds a comical touch to our magazine. Secondary Image Main Image One convention we found from our research was the inclusion of page numbers at the bottom of each page, along side the name of the magazine and date, we decided our article would fit in the magazine Game Pro, a gaming magazine. Another convention is to have the reporter and photographer credited at the end of the article, two things we did. One thing to consider when creating the magazine was the colour scheme. Firstly we decided to use two different colours of text in the Q&A article, this was to show the reader clearly whos talking and also to add a splash of colour. This is also a common convention in magazines. Another technique we implemented was adding blue bubbles around the page, this was to break up the white background and draw in the reader. 9. One thing to consider when creating the magazine was the colour scheme. Firstly we decided to use two different colours of text in the Q&A article, this was to show the reader clearly whos talking and also to add a splash of colour. This is also a common convention in magazines. Another technique we implemented was adding blue bubbles around the page, this was to break up the white background and draw in the reader. 10. Radio Trailer I found the biggest challenge out of the three tasks given was creating the radio trailer. This was really down to the fact that I didnt have a great knowledge on the codes and conventions of radio trailers. Because of this me and my group did extensive research into radio trailers in order to fully understand their codes and conventions. A particular radio trailer that stood out to me was the trailer for the doctor who episode linked here (Doctor Who Death in Heaven Radio Trailer). Although this trailer was for a television episode and not a documentary it is still a promotional trailer much like ours and gave us a greater insight into what to include in our trailer. Soundtrack We noticed on most every radio trailer we listened to there was an underline backing track throughout. When deciding what we would use in our trailer we wanted something upbeat but not distracting. We eventually went for the track we used during the Coming up next time section of our documentary called Making Time. This was decided as we felt the track was lively yet didnt distract from the trailer; it also links our ancillary and primary products . Audio from the product We noticed when listening to the Doctor Who trailer that most the audio used was from the main product it was advertising. We decided to incorporate this into our trailer using second long audio clips from our film to really illustrate what the documentary will be about and include. These audio clips included expert interviews, vox pops and audio clips from our two presenters, showcasing both the factual side of our film but also the comical tone with the inclusion of Scott, one of the presenters shouting Nice Shot in a comical tone. Narration When researching into radio trailers we also found that most all of them include narration, this usually states what time the programme/film will air and on what channel. This narration also usually introduces the topic to the audience. Making Time 11. When creating the trailer we used the presenters from our documentary to introduce the topic, we did this in a comical tone, immediately showing our documentary was humorous. We also used a clear female voice to tell the listener what channel the film will air and at what time. We decided to use a female voice for a number of reasons, firstly we didnt want our products male dominated, we also felt a female voice sounds clearer and more enticing than a male one. Finally we round of the trailer with a joke Oh yeah I remember now to reinforce that the documentary will be comical and fun. In conclusion In conclusion I feel we generally stayed very close to convention in both the primary and ancillary products. In some ways our documentary does challenge and develop general convention however I think the ways in which we did this only improve our final product. The dual presenter dynamic develops on the existing performativite documentary mode and adds elements of humour not usually found in documentaries on our chosen topic. However in many other ways we stuck very close to convention following the rule of thirds, including both vox pop and expert interviews and have a smooth and constant soundtrack. The magazine is probably our most convention product, following the rule of thirds and other conventions such as having a main image and a secondary image. Regarding the radio trailer I feel that it develops the general convention using conventions such as background music, audio clips from our documentary and a voice over. I feel we have developed upon general convention however by using two presenters once again, however I feel this works and gives the radio trailer and definite link to the documentary.