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Q1 - In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Nathan Pugsley

Throughout the creation of our advanced portfolio, we have produced a few media texts; including the first 5 minutes of a documentary and then a radio advert and double page magazine article to help support and advertise it.

As a group we decided to base the documentary around a common conflict amongst teenagers – school and sport. As we all come from sporting backgrounds, it was an easy decision to choose this subject area as we could use our links to our advantage, like gaining access to a boxing gym as well as experts for interviews.

The process of creating the products took a long time, however it was very rewarding getting three final products I can look at and enjoy. I will now compare my documentary, magazine and radio advert to those of actual real media texts. From there I can evaluate how we have used, developed or challenged forms and conventions of the real media texts.

Intoduction

I will be comparing “Supersize Me” by Morgan Spurlock to our documentary…

Documentary

Archival footage is common amongst documentaries; it allows the producer to show to the audience video footage from a wide range of locations that would originally be impossible due to their own locational limitations. Supersize Me is a documentary that uses archival footage, especially the use news clips from around the USA. This allowed Spurlock to mediate his thoughts to the audience effectively, without being limited to footage that he recorded himself. This was experienced by us when creating the documentary, as being confined to 2hr 30 lesson only allowed us to travel out so far – and without a car this meant we could only go as far as the local shopping centre next to the college. Therefore archival footage was used very frequently, showing clips of sporting activities from places we couldn’t access – such as swimming pools and boxing fight shows. This allowed us to represent teenagers performing sport, which was needed to create a binary opposite of teenagers in education which we had captured in college. Without the archival footage, the binary opposite couldn’t have been created and the conflict which drives the narrative of the documentary wouldn’t exist.

Archival Footage

Vox pops are a way of getting opinions from the public, which give very truthful and honest answers as they don’t have time to plan their responses. Mise-en-scene is an important aspect of vox pops as what the subject is in front of can help support the area that is being discussed. Spurlock interviewed the public in front of fast food chains, which represents them as addicted to the restaurants and helps him to mediate his idea that all of America is addicted to fast food. The type of shot is also used with effect, as a medium close up helps portray the publics emotions and therefore allowing the audience to have more of a connection to what they’re watching. These techniques were not successfully executed with our vox pops. We originally intended to shoot the clips outside of a sports store, but because of complications with permission to film, this was not possible. This meant we were force out onto the high street, meaning mise-en-scene had no effect. The shot type we used was also too wide to really show any emotion, meaning the audience couldn’t connect to what they were saying. However as our clips were very fast paced, I don’t think this is an issue as even if the shots were closer up, they wouldn’t be on screen for long enough to grant any attachment. What we did do well however was choose the correct people for vox pops. There was a range of ages, professions and genders, all of which effect how sport is experienced both today and at their school (when they attended) which made for some interesting answers.

Vox Pops

Interviews are another key convention of documentaries. Compositionally, our documentary is very similar to Spurlocks; both use a mid-shot, have mise-en-scene to show who the interviewee is, and have text to state who the interviewee is. However were our documentary somewhat goes against convention is in the content, and through gate keeping what we decided to show the audience. Spurlock’s interviews all show a clear opinion – that being fast food is bad for you. No matter what part of the documentary the audience is watching, the interviews always infer this opinion. In our documentary however, we wanted to balance out each interview, therefore one was supporting sport, one supporting school and the other keeping quite neutral. This was intentionally done to retain an open narrative, so that the audience can make up their own mind about whether teens should priorities sport or school.

Interviews

Our use of statistics isn’t very effective, and therefore I don’t believe it follows convention. Due to the sheer amount of statistics we show in the short amount of item allocated to that section meant that the audience was flooded with information. Originally we intended the statistics to be informative, as that is one of the modes of our documentary, but because of the amount of them I feel like instead of being informative to the audience it was all a blur for them. However I feel that the way we presented them, being a stop motion, also conformed to convention. Spurlock’s statistics in Supersize Me always featured some form of graphical animation, which made it very interesting to look at from an audience perspective – which is why we also wanted to animate ours so it was more interesting for the audience to look at. However what he did that we didn’t was keep them concise, and allow enough time for the audience to really understanding the stats that were being discussed; because of this his statistics were far more effective in terms of informing the audience.

Statistics

Background footage, or B-roll as we called it, allowed us to add lots of little clips to the documentary. This helped support what the narrator was saying; for example when talking about sport there would be sport clips, but when talking about school there would be clips of students. We also ensured that we highlighted certain objects, for example when talking about boxing we would show pan shots of the gym. This uses Barthe’s theory of codes, this specific code being symbolic. When showing the pan shots of the gym, the audience can see it looks a bit run down and grungy, with connotes to boxing being a dirty sort of sport and therefore represents the stereotypical people who participate in the sport – that being working class people. These clips were either synced to music or the narrator, which also helped keep up the pace of the documentary and help the narrative flow. Spurlock does the exact same thing, meaning our documentary in terms of b roll conforms to conventions. When talking about fast food, there would always be clips of people eating fast food. This is a symbolic code for the audience, as the people eating the food would always be fat, from which the audience interprets that fast food makes you fat which is exactly what Spurlock is trying to say throughout the documentary.

B-Roll

Spurlock’s mode for his documentary was performative, as he was the main subject of the documentary and the whole narrative revolved around him and his actions. This is great for engaging the audience, as they can create a direct emotional attachment to him, making everything he says and does more influential upon the audience. However I believe in doing this, Spurlock is breaking convention as most documentaries are expositional – having a voice of god to lead the audience through the narrative instead. This is what we use in our documentary, as we felt it gave a more professional feel and also allowed us to show the audience different clips, as a presented was not important for purpose of the documentary to be portrayed. I think this also allowed us to create the preferred reading we intended, if we follow Stuart Hall’s theory. The documentary being expositional allowed us to more carefully choose what was said to the audience, so that they take away from the documentary what was initially intended.

Mode / Reading

I will be comparing an article about a new Louis Theroux documentary by TV & Satellite, and our DPS…

Double Page Spread

Our DPS follows convention by having a large main title, positioned in the top left of the page as this is where a persons attention is automatically drawn to when reading - both articles follow this convention, although the real product has the title below an image which sits it lower down the page. Regarding our DPS, the masthead is exactly the same as the title that we used on the documentary, which creates a link between both of the products, something that the audience will realise and then relate everything they learn from the article to the documentary which helps them to understand what the documentary is about. To make it stand out, we have made sure the text is on a plain background, which the real DPS has also followed – this makes it much easier for the audience to read it, but also see it in the first place.

Masthead

Having stand out quotes is a common convention is double page spreads. We have followed this convention as we feature a large quote in the middle of the article, whereas the real product has done the same thing except the quote is positioned at the top of the page, which still means it conformed to convention. We want the audience to go away with a balanced opinion on sport and education, so having the quote helps to balance the opinion of the audience as it mentions the benefit of sport, which is the preferred reading we desire. What it also does is link the DPS and the documentary together, as the quote is directly from what one of the experts interviews.

Quotes

An obvious convention of a documentary listing is to have key information about the documentary, this includes the channel, the time and the date that the documentary airs. This conventionally stands out from the rest of the text as it is deemed important and the audience needs to see it. The real product has all of the key information listed in a bright yellow box, which follows convention perfectly. Although our key information is only in a bold font, it still stands out more than the other text and gives all the information needed, therefore we also followed convention.

Key Information

It is very common in articles to have it split up into columns, usually three. It makes the article seem less daugnting to read, and also makes the process of reading much easier. Length of the article is also important, conventionally they’re not too long, but still provide a good amount of interesting information. The real product features three columns, and is of an average length; likewise our DPS features three columns, however it is possibly too long. A convention that our DPS follows that the real product doesn’t is using a drop cap to signify the start of the article, which makes it clear to the audience where to start reading from. Both articles however ensure the article is based on a plain background so that the text stands out and is easy to read. Especially for our teenage audience who wouldn’t be too fond on reading, making it easy to read was a very important convention that we needed to follow.

Article / Drop Cap

The real media product followed convention in terms of images, as they used one big main image. This is usually very effective in gaining a sudden interest by the audience as an image can give off an initial impression about what the article is about. This is one of the few places where our DPS challenges convention, as we decided to have many smaller images than one main one. This was to fit with the style of the DPS, as the five images are made to look like polaroid images that are pinned down to a cork board as that fits with the whole theme of it looking like a teenagers cork board that they would use for school work. The benefit of having many images compared to one is that we could show many different parts of the documentary, which allows the audience to get a better understanding of the documentary as a whole and increase the likelihood of them wanting to watch the whole thing. The images themselves were taken directly from the documentary which directly links the two products but also may help appeal to each audience respectively, as there are images of teenagers and others of adults who could be parents. However what our DPS shares with the real product is the image(s) informing the audience what the documentary will be about (images of sport for our dps as it is about sport, and images of police as the other documentary is about crime)which is another convention.

Images

I will be comparing an radio advert for a new documentary called “Behaviour Managing Britain” to our own radio advert for “Teens in Sport”

Radio Advert

Using music on a radio advert to represent what the product it is advertising is about is a convention that almost always is followed. The real media product is a serious documentary, as it discusses the issues surrounding behaviour in school. To represent this they have used music that is quite subtle, and although it has a beat to it which helps keep the pace of the advert, that pace is quite slow. Our radio advert challenges this convention, as our documentary is meant to be serious as it is there to inform, the music we used is very upbeat and quite fun. Although it works well for keeping the audience entertained throughout the advert, which is a great thing as then they will know where and when to watch the documentary, they may get the wrong impression about what the content of the documentary will be. We also used the same music in the documentary as the radio advert, which creates a direct link between the two products. Although we challenged convention, I think it was for effect and had a better outcome than if we used less exciting music.

Music

After listening to the real radio advert, they have included soundbites at the very start of it. This tends to be convention of radio adverts as it immediately grabs the audiences attention as it seems more personal; for example they included bites of students saying negative things about school which allows the audience to gain some sort of emotional attachment. We initially had a conversation of teenagers talking about school and sport, which would have followed convention as the audience could’ve latched onto the characters that were talking. However due to time restrictions we had on the length of the advert, we had to edit this out, and put some shorter sound bites in but more importantly put them in the middle of the advert. This wasn’t very effective as there's nothing at the start of the advert to quickly gain the audiences attention, and when it gets to the bites, the audio levels aren’t great which may even make the audience change radio station and not find out about when the documentary airs. Even though we unintentionally challenged convention, it wasn’t done for effect and may have put the audience off the documentary.

Soundbites

The key information in the radio advert is the date and time as well as the channel that the documentary will air on. This is obviously a very important convention of radio adverts, as without it the audience simply couldn’t watch the product it is advertising. The location is also important, and it always tends to be mentioned at the very end as then that’s what the audience will hear last and therefore go away with; it will stick in their minds, which is what we want so they’ll watch the documentary. Both our radio advert and the real one mention very clearly the date and time, as well as the channel at the very end of 30 seconds. Therefore our radio advert conformed to convention and did so with positive effect.

Key Information

Another convention that we followed is having a narrator perform a voice over throughout the full advert. The real product followed this by having a narrator speak throughout and used the time to inform the audience what the documentary is about. We did the same sort of thing, however we decided to use two narrators and create a conversation. This keeps the pace of the radio advert high, and also keeps the audience engaged in the voice over as it seems to them like they’re part of a conversation; being younger voices also represented the younger audience, which would help them pay attention as typically they wouldn’t be interested in radio. This meant that when the narrators mentioned key information, like what the documentary will be about and when it airs, the chance of the audience paying attention will be increased and therefore the chance of them watching the documentary will be higher. This is of course the main aim of the advert, and therefore conforming to convention was done effectively.

Voice Over