Convention

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documentar

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Length Short films tend to be around 5 – 35 minutes long. With 2- 3 main

characters. Characters are kept to a minimum due to the length of a short film. This way the plot is kept to an understandable level without trying to make it too complex. This is also done to try and achieve a sense of relationship between viewer and characters.

Currently we have assigned two main persons to our documentary; professor gauntlet and Mr Jeff Kindleysides. We have chosen these two as we feel that they provide two different sides of the spectrum. Professor gauntlet provides a more academic view on the subject. Mr Jeff Kindleysides however has a more personal attatchement to the creative industry with more business based opinions.

costsDue to short films having a niche following the budget

naturally is smaller. For this reason it is generally independent production companies that make short films. The smaller production budget results in a stripping back of equipment, locations and other cost variable things.

We fit this convention of having a small production team and a small budget with limited equipment as the most we are spending on is the travelling cost down to London for our interview with professor gauntlet. We have also managed to get all of our intereviews for free.

PlotShort films usually base themselves on a generic emotion

feeling or situation that we feel on a daily basis. This is done to make the short film more relatable to a mass audience. The plots tend to stimulate the thought processes of many on a certain subject such as creativity reaching the audience on an interlectual level.

Our documentary is based on what creativity is to different people. We aim to look at creativity in a number of ways to perhaps challenge some peoples views on creativity and explore them in more depth.

Genre conventions Observational documentariesThis type aims to look at the world as if looking through an open

window into the world. The film makers try to not effect the happenings around them to ensure that they capture an accurate representation on what they are filming. With this type of documentary there is no sound both diegetic and non diegetic. This type also refrains from using any type of interview or reenactments and subjects that are in the shot would act as if the camera where non existent.

We like the idea of looking upon the subject as if we where not there as we feel this gives a more cinematic result which is what we are looking for however we obviously do not like the idea of not having any sound or interviews within our production so we are looking to combine the two main themes of observational and expository.

Genre conventionsExpository is a documentary that speaks directly to the viewer in a authorities way.

Obviously this is not what we want as we want the interviewees to speak for themselves. The reason we would take an expository style forward is because this style aims to prove a point which we are trying to do with the idea of creativity being different to everyone.

We feel that a combination of the two gives a style that is more to our tastes. As expository allows us to prove our point that creativity is different to everyone and the observational style lends itself to a more cinematic style.

Reflexive is a type of documentary that focuses on the constructive nature. It welcomes the audience in to acknowledge the creative process of the documentary. A reflexive documentary aims to engage the audience in different issues. They often look at a variety of different aspects to get the audience to think beyond their own views. This is helped by the fact that a a reflexive documentary opens the audience up to the creative process such as sound editing and recordings.

We like the idea of opening the audience up to different areas and broadening their view on different subjects. We feel that our idea of having a variety of different minds from different areas of the creative industry will agree to this mode of documentary.

Conventions of a radio advertisements The most conventional technique used in radio adverts is the use of VOICE OVER:

voice over is the use of a voice to describe the product and help the listener to grasp an understanding of what the radio advert is aiming to advertise. Because a radio advert is just through the use of sound the voice over needs to have a strong presence in order to have impact and for the name of the product to stand out. It is conventional to have a clear speaker who will do the voice over of the advert.

Another convention for a radio trailer is to have sound effect such as Foley sound to compliment the voice over. This is done to make the advertisement a little more interesting than what it would be with just a voice over and often makes the advert more specific to the a certain product such as sprites advert which we analyzed earlier. The popping noises in the advert mimicked the sounds of a can being opened and a tennis ball hitting the ground.

The length of a radio advert can be anywhere from 20 – 40 seconds in length. This gives just enough time for all of the information to be put forward and for the advert to be effective.

For a documentary advert it would be conventional to include some sound bed from the documentary itself such as a snippet from an interview to give the listeners an idea as to what the documentary is like.

What Is a film posterA film poster is a form of promotion. It is a phyisical piece of

art that can be placed in various different locations to advertise the release of a new film. Examples of these locations are: billboard, bus stops, buses and underground stations. The posters of films are also often shared through social media space.

Conventions: Film posterA poster for a film•Eye catching with a focal picture that draws the attention to the poster. •The title is usually in a large font •An indication to the films release date through either a specific date or just a general time for example ‘this summer’•Information about the production company is often placed at the bottom of the page or at the top. •There is sometimes reviews about the film on the poster •The films genre is clearly labeled somewhere on the poster•A poster will often have a particular theme surrounding them through colour for example which is a quick way of passers by to identify what genre it is. For example a rom com will use bright colours such a pink because this is what is attractive to their chosen audience and horror films will use darker colours such a black.

Conventions and how institutions affects this With our production so far we have vaguely touched on the the two

institutional routes for our documentary. We can either go for a more mainstream documentary for example channel 4’s documentaries or a more independent cinematic style where by we would be more experimental with the content that we put on the documentary. Both ways have their different styles and conventions. A cinema release or television season of short film such as those shown on channel four are more structured in their approach to posters. As we picked up on in the textual analysis of posters channel fours posters have a very particular house style that we would have to stick with if we where to go down the route. In the actual documentary footage we would also have to abide by what is conventional for a cinema release of television series style of documentary which would effect the types of people that we interview and how we interview them. We would have to ensure our narrative remained similar to those of the institution we go for for. The same goes for the radio advert. Particular styles that the institution we go for would have to strictly followed.

Short documentary conventions Documentaries at full length tend to be fixated around a few

characters. Around 3-4 at most and will look at each character in depth and will look over a variety of different subject matters. Short documentaries are different. For starters they are short! We don’t have time to fixate on characters instead each character will get around a minute or two slot to talk about a similar subject/issue. Short documentaries usually have fewer interviewees due to the short time frame. Cuts are quick and the pace of the film will feel fast and informative without the often irrelevant sections that can be placed into full length documentaries.

Conventions: what we are taking forward: radioWe are going to stick to most of the radio advert conventions as we feel

that going against them will potentially result in not having a very clear radio trailer and therefore it not being very clear to the audience what the radio advert is advertising. We also feel that sticking to the conventions of a radio trailer would maximize the results it has.

The conventions that we are specifically staying with is the use of a voice over. Although our voice over will not be a large part of the radio advert because sound clips from the documentary will dominate, voice over will make an appearance at the end of the documentary when the title is said out loud. Having the sound clips from the documentary ensures that we do stay within conventions of radio adverts for documentaries. At the beginning of our radio advert we are thinking about having the sound of different tools in the workshop in quick cuts. The idea of having this at the beginning of a radio advert is conventional as it is a way of grabbing the audiences attention.

Conventions: what we are taking forward: Poster In terms of conventions for a poster we think that we may go against a few as

most of the poster we are looking at do challenge some conventions and the target market we are aiming our film at are not the sort that would be attracted by a generic poster. However having said this there are still many conventions that we are going to follow on order to make sure that it does not lose its effectiveness.

There are certain conventions such as institutional information that we are taking forward because in a real life situation this is often compulsory. We have also decided to take on the idea of having a tagline which isn't necessarily a convention but is an option that can make for a nice addition to a poster campaign when done correctly. We have discussed the idea of taking on a design that utilizes the central section of the rule of thirds more than anywhere else. A design such as this is conventional for a minimalistic poster. We are definitely going to have the font on a larger scale and also have review quotes on either side of the central section to ensure the side sections on the rule of thirds do not look to bare. We feel that the cinematic style that we are currently thinking about taking forward would suit a more independent cinematic release as part of a short film documentary.