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

Evaluation: ‘Café Nation’

Mixed DocumentaryIn 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’

InterviewsAt 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 keyingin Lara Croft documentary

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.

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.

MusicBy 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.

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

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.

Defying conventionUltimately 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.