Question 1 –

use develop

challenge

Hi my name is Sabreena. My media product uses forms and conventions

of real media products. Through my extensive research into

documentaries I have incorporated key features into my expository

documentary, such as:

Statistics

Montage shots

incorporated with

a voice of God

narration

Interviews

My opening titles of my documentary illustrate what the rest of my documentary will

be based on. The appearance of my titles are bold and in the colour of white. I chose

the colour white as it’s a colour considered as perfection, purity and neutral as it’s a

very simple colour which suggests simplicity seen in real media products such as ‘24

Hours in A&E’.

I used the conventions from real media products to place my titles beneath the

interviewees name on the left hand side of the screen is the interviewee’s job title I

came to the decision to place my titles on this position as referring to my research and

planning into real media products such as the documentary series ‘Panorama’. This

title is in the font of Bell Gothic Std, size 90 which is in a bold font in the colour of

black. Black is the colour associated with power, smartness and mystery. I chose to

use this colour as it’s a symbolic colour linked to conventions of real media products

such as ‘Party Paramedic’ which structures their titles towards the left of the shot. As

black and white are opposite they are known as complimentary colours as they are

different from each other therefore I chose to use black in contrast with the white titles

as there is a distinction between the portrayal of the formal and elegant title which

links to the interviewee who is dressed in smart attire.

Panorama’s positioning of the titles were reflected

on my documentary (picture on the right hand side)

I have developed the titles for my interviews by getting fonts directed to gaming I

chose to do this as my previous fonts were too simple and disconnected to my theme

of gaming. I chose to develop the conventions of real media products after

researching into documentaries such as ‘We are the people we’ve been waiting for’

which was distributed by the Guardian newspaper which focuses their fonts of the

titles on a teachers blackboard. As a result of my research into documentaries, I

changed my original fonts into a type of Matrix theme writing to match the titles with

my documentary theme. I decide on a change of font as it’s related to gaming so that

my audience are aware of the running theme throughout my documentary.

As we can see in this documentary ‘we are the

people we’ve been waiting for has the font that

reflects a teachers blackboard.

As my documentary is an expository documentary; which consists of direct address of

social issues, assembled into an argument frame mediated by a voice of God

narration. I decided to go with the typical convention of this sort of documentary and

use a voice over which joins the narrative together introducing my theme of gaming.

The tone of the voice over is captivating and informative as it reveals the

introduction to my documentary which is the most important part of a documentary as

it can either entice or put off my viewers into watching my documentary, I hired a male

to read out the script for the voice over, the use of a voice over allows me to deliver

this he conveys the narrative in a calm and clear tone directing my documentary as

this manner needs to sound calm and educational in order for individuals to

comprehend the introduction. The significance of having a male voice in my

documentary is that the male voice draws attention to the main focus of the

documentary, which leaves the viewer pondering on the interview and their personal

opinion about gaming.

My narration begins late into my documentary by 15 seconds with a voice over,

The narration is heard at this point as the start of my documentary is directed through

music and montage shots which begin to build up to the theme of gaming. The

significance of the late introduction to my narration is because the montage footage is

directed to stereotyping young people playing different types of video gaming consoles

and the different places they play, the reason why I presented young people in this

manner was so that my target audience are aware of how young people are

influenced by gaming. I have used the convention of a real documentary by implicating

factual information as well as descriptive language; an example of this is ‘Panorama’

which involves reliable evidence.

The convention of my documentary that I have followed is the use of a montage at the

beginning of my documentary.

I chose to use footage instead of images in the beginning of my documentary to

establish the subject of my theme as the montage shots are circled around young

people playing games and the different places video games are played. This is an

important aspect in terms of the rest of the documentary as it leads to the main

introduction of 5 minutes.

The reason why I decided to use montage shots instead of jumping straight to my

narration and interviews was because I wanted a build up before the narration was

heard via the voice over so that my target audience can consider the theme through

music and footage before any narration is heard.

The position of the interviewee follows the codes and conventions of a real

documentary; my interviewee is positioned to the right of a screen looking directly at

the unseen interviewer positioned near the camera.

This gives the impression of direct address as the interviewee appears to be look at us

directly as we focus on the interviewee we are unaware of the interviewer but as an

alternative we focus on the surroundings instead of the interviewer who is asking the

questions. The job of the interview ties in with the Mise en scene that is being

discussed as I have used the conventions of real media products such as

documentaries like: ‘why we fight’ and A&E biographies. I add to the positioning of

the interviewee a professional background that links in with the theme as well as the

interview.

The statistic relating to gaming was taken from Bloomberg statistics of

gaming this is a convention for documentaries as they deliver realistic

facts about the theme focused on, the voice over is heard to make the

viewer’s knowledgeable that the presenter is purposely not seen

throughout the whole of the documentary which is a convention of an

expository documentary.

I introduced my music in the introduction as it works extremely well for the opening

titles and since the music is upbeat it goes well with the tone of my documentary as

well as the montage shots. The music does link in with my gaming theme as it is

upbeat and quirky in terms of a fast paced rhythm.

The props that I have used in my documentary all conform to the typical conventions

of real media products. For my props I have included the different gaming consoles

which signify the theme of my documentary. My props in this interview adds to the

allusion of being in an office of an individual that knows a lot about gaming as there

are PlayStation game disc’s on the desk, On the mac screen there is a demo of a

game being played showing the sort of violence that games are consisting of and

posters of popular games and others posters that give the age rating for games.

This interview (Ms Wilkinson interview) consists of a lot of props due to the setting of

the location which reflects the interviewee as she is a teacher who studies and

teaches psychology. However this does not break the verisimilitude as the Mise en

scene surroundings are focused around the interviewee’s job. As I decided to film this

documentary in a class room I had the props of a school lanyard that has the words

‘staff’ on it which my interviewee wore, the backdrop has a white board with writing on

it to represent a class room in use and the computer in the left corner add to the

reference of a teachers classroom. This interviewee has the props surrounding her to

signify a teacher who specialises in the field of psychology at a school.

When editing my documentary I have used fade to black at the end of my interviews

to show that the interview has come to an end and the narrative is moving onto a new

point, this is a conventional form of real media products. The music in the intro joins

the narrative together as the music continues whilst the narrator is speaking and fades

out so that there is still a faint sound of the theme tune while hearing the narrator

introduce the documentary verbally.