By Rosa Jones

Jamie Oliver: The Naked Truth

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZ-PVTOGqk

Blog: http://rja2media.wordpress.com/

For my A2 course work I was required to make 5 minutes of part of a documentary. I then had to create a newspaper advert of the documentary, and a radio advert. I researched into documentaries to prepare myself for the coursework. I looked into the definitions, features and types.A documentary is a living record of a feature in the ‘real’ world, used to educate the audience and make them aware.Some features of documentaries are:• Interviews• Facts• Opinions• Voice over• Cartoons• Statistics• ReconstructionsThere are many different types of documentaries, the three main modes I’m going to study are; Expository, Observational and Cinema Verite. An Expository documentary is where facts are used to create a socially critical argument. An Observational documentary is where the film maker follows the person or group around to observe the events that happen in their lives. A Cinema Verite documentary is where the film maker can often get involved in the action.I also watched a variety of different documentaries to inspire me. These included; Blackfish, Grizzly Man, Undefeated, This is Us, Nanook of the North, Faring height, Bowling for Columbine, My Baggy Body, Supersize Me.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

I set out to create roughly 5 minutes of the start of an expository documentary about the consequences of Jamie Oliver’s Feed Me Better campaign. I decided my argument would be negative and based on the view that he left chaos behind after trying to enforce this change. I wanted to create a documentary that

engaged the audience and was interesting to younger viewers. I wanted to include a range of media techniques that the target audience would find intriguing. I used interviews and a time lapse to mix up

the documentary so the audience didn’t find it tedious. The purpose of my radio advert and newspaper advert was to persuade the audience to take an interest in the documentary. I wanted to include the right information and make sure that it wasn’t misleading.The documentary mainly focuses negatively on Jamie Oliver. I wanted to mock him and his campaign. I

felt that by including people that were personally effected by this campaign, for example the cooks, would help emphasis my message and could be used as an emotional hook on the audience.

When uploading Jamie Oliver: The Naked Truth to YouTube I had to challenge the conventions of this media product because they would not allow me to post my documentary on to their site.

This was because they accused me of copyright because I have used archive footage. However I have researched The Fair Use Law so I knew that I was in the legal requirements. http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p09_fair_use

So I challenged YouTube, I used their system to dispute the claim that I was in breach of copy right because I acknowledged the source of the clips.

An Expository documentary is where facts are used to create a socially critical argument. This argument can either be plain and direct or indirect and hidden. An example of an expository documentary is Supersize Me by Morgan Spurlock. He follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003 during which he ate only McDonald’s food. The film documents this lifestyle’s drastic effect on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry’s corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.The features of an Expository documentary are;• A narrator (‘voice of god’ – tells us/explains what we are looking at)• A Script (the argument/expository which anchors the visual material)• Reconstructions (re-tells the ‘truth’)• Stereotypes (these simplify the issues)• Interviews (eyewitness/experts)

I decided to use a expository documentary because it was the documentary type that best fit the theme. I decided that I would be exposing an argument, an observational documentary would not allow me to do this effectively. I researched features of expository documentaries and what to include in my documentary. I also watched examples of expository documentaries and pin pointed how the film maker used these key features in their films.