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

Part one
For our A2 media coursework we had to work in a small group to produce the opening five minutes to a documentary of our choice along with a radio trail and double page spread to advertise it. This was to be completed over a number of weeks accounting for the research, planning, filming, writing, designing and editing of all three tasks. Before we could start production there was a lot of research and planning to be done. As a group we watched, analysed and noted down the key aspects to the opening five minutes to a documentary, what is included in a radio trail and refreshed and used our knowledge from our AS year about producing a double page spread. We also had to decide on a topic to bas our coursework on. After various ideas, brainstorms and discussions we decided that we wanted to focus on the smartphones place within society.

When researching into professional documentaries we came across Bill Nicholls (2001); an American theorist who studied the different modes within a range of documentaries. He identified six different modes that documentaries follow: Poetic - Focus on a specific tone/mood to sway the audience into agreeing with the directors point of view. - Through The Eastern Gate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71RcY6L8RDA Expository - Voice of God Where the voice over speaks directly to the audience - Wild China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkD4lKWS0ro Observational - Almost fly on the wall. Where we simply observe with no opinions given. - Nature documentaries - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm1qV2b1Sc from Defending a monkey harem - Clever Monkeys - BBC Earth Participatory - When we see the presenter involved with the subject at hand. - Mary Queen of Shops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP_dTq0pAG0 Reflexive - The filmmaker is in front of the camera

- Look at the issues of realism - Exit Through The Gift Shop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfmBdCc5cc Performative - The opinions and point of view from a person. - Supersize Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H156Z08Pck0 As a group we decided that we were to use elements from the expository mode and the poetic modes in our documentary. The narrative of our documentary poses a strong argument with many rhetorical elements within it. It is very opinionated and focuses on the negative aspects to the smartphone in such a way that the audience is lead to agree with the points presented.