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

Documentary We were given a brief to create a 5 minute opening to a documentary. In order to start planning our documentary we conducted research into professional documentaries to figure out what the codes and conventions were. We watched Supersize Me and My Tattoo Addiction as well as some short documentaries which were on YouTube such as Skin Deep. This gave us a good idea of the codes and conventions of documentaries and how we could implement them in our documentary. We also did some research on the conventions to be certain that the ones that we had picked up from the documentaries were correct. After completing all of our research we concluded that the typical codes and conventions of documentaries are: voiceovers, expert interviews, vox pops, reconstructions, archival footage, montage, exposition and actuality. We used the majority of these coventions in our documentary. Voiceover: There are two typical types of voiceover narration; voice of God and voice of authority. Voice of God is when the voice is not seen on the screen whereas voice of authority is where the person is seen on the screen. We used voice of God narration in our documentary. This was present in two out of three of the documentaries that we viewed as research. Using the voice of God follows conventions as it is more common for the narrator to be off screen during the documentary. We chose to follow this convention because it guides the documentary in the way we want and allows us to clearly explain things to the audience. Expert interviews: Interviews with experts on the topic of a documentary are important to give in depth information into the topic. They are reliable sources of information and allows the audience to learn something new from them. They are a big part of documentaries and are a very important convention in the genre. We interviewed two tattoo artists for the expert interviews in the documentary. This follows conventions because all of the documentaries we watched included interviews with experts. We chose to follow this convention because it allows the audience to gain extra reliable information from them and can also

provide things that we can expand on. We also followed the conventions with the framing of the shots. Documentaries use the rule of thirds when filming interviews. We tried to ensure that both of the experts were to one side of the screen. The interview with Ashley was very successful in sticking to the rule of thirds but the interview with Kev was less successful. The camera could be considered as being too high as his eyes are not in the top third of the screen. He is also not quite far enough to the left to be in the left third. We tried to follow this convention because it is looks professional. Vox pops: These are short interviews with members of the general public. They dont need to have any specific knowledge of the topic that the documentary is on but they would need an opinion on the subject. This was present in all of the documentaries that we watched and is used as a tool to get peoples opinions on the topic of the documentary. We used five vox pops in our documentary. We tried to get a range of age and gender in order to get a variety of different opinions. We followed the convention of using vox pops because it allowed us to gain different opinions on tattoos and it allowed us to expand on some of the things they said. We tried to use the rule of thirds when filming the vox pops as it provides a clear layout to the shot. However it was difficult to ensure that the person stayed in the place they started as they often moved as they were talking. This often meant that they were no long in a third of the screen. Archival footage: This is footage that you have not filmed yourself. It usually demonstrates something that you cannot film. The archival footage that we used was of a Polynesian tattoo being done. We found this on YouTube and decided to use it to show our audience how tattooing has progressed over the years. We chose to use this convention in our documentary because we thought it would be a very good education tool for our audience. I am pleased with how it fit in to the documentary and effectively showed the difference in tattooing. Actuality: The topic of documentaries are usually Montage: A montage of images are very common in all documentaries. They allow time for the voice over to speak without anything on the screen being too distracting. The three main documentaries that we researched all included montages in order to use an image to

explain something or to break up and change topics. We included montages in our documentary as it allowed us to change what we were talking about. We ensures that all of the images related to tattooing and that they were visually interesting. This follows conventions as we used a series of images to create something aesthetically pleasing in order to break up the documentary and change topic. Reconstruction: Reconstructions are often used in order to recreate something that cannot be filmed at the time. For example, a documentary about knife crime may use reconstructions to demonstate a stabbing because they would be unable to film an actual stabbing. We didn t use this convention in our documentary as there was nothing that we could reconstruct as we were not old enough to get a tattoo of our own. This slightly challenges conventions as we didnt use reconstructions. However the two documentaries that we watch ed about tattooing also didnt include reconstructions. This could be because it is difficult to reconstruct a scenario relating to tattooing. We also looked into the Bill Nichols Documentary Modes (2001). There are 6 modes; poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative. We chose to create a expository and in some senses reflexive documentary. We chose expository as we wanted our documentary to have a strong argument and to talk directly to the viewer. This was because our topic could be considered as contraversial as a lot of people have opinions on whether people should have tattoos or not. Our documentary was also going to include persuasion as our view on tattos is positive so we wanted to try to persuade our audience that tattoos are a good thing. Our documentary could be seen to slightly include the reflexive mode as it often wrestles with the findings and opinions that are given. This is similar to Supersize Me as the film maker wrestles with his findings about th e food that he is eating and whether he should carry on the experiment. Double Page Spread As part of our brief we also had to create a double page spread to acompany the documentary. We had created a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread in AS Media so we knew a lot about the codes and conventions of double page spreads. However, we did research into two existing double page articles in order to refresh our memories on the conventions so we could create the best spread possible. We concluded that the

typical conventions for magazine articles are a masthead, main image, text, a pull quote, bi line, drop caps, dates and channels and house style. We all used these conventions in our double page spead in order to maintain the professional look of the articles that we analysed. Theres a bi line underneath the masthead which gives the reader a bit more information about what the article is about. This tells the audience the name of the documentary and the date and the channel that it is on. This allows the audience to know when they can watch this documentary. A drop cap introduces the article. It establishes the starting point for the text and it stands out in order to attract the audiences attention. The name of the magazine and the date are included at the bottom of the double page spread as part of the house style. This ensures that every page has the same basic features. We chose to use a masthead as it is an important convention to show the reader what the article is going to be about. The main image fills up a majority of the page. It is directly related to the documentary as it is an image taken from one of the montages. A puff advertises that it is a new documentary. The red makes it stand out against the background of the image drawing attention to it.

Other smaller images are also taken from the documentary to give the audience an idea of what types of shots are going to be in the documentary.

The text is in columns to ensure that it looks neat and organised in order to make it easy for the audience to read.

The pull quote is bigger than the rest of the text and is in the same colour as the masthead. This attracts attention to it so the audience can get an idea of how the article is going to be written and what types of information is it before they read it.

Overall, we followed conventions very well when creating the double page spread as all of the conventions that we found we included in our article. I dont think we challenged or developed any codes or conventions when making the double page spread. I think this creates a professional look for the article and it is something very similar to an article in the Radio Times.

Radio Trail The final part of the brief said that we had to create a radio trail to advertise our documentary. When we started to think about the radio trail we were very unsure of what the conventions were. We did some thorough research into different radio trails including the Radio Comedy Show on BBC Radio 4 and the Italian Grand Prix on BBC Radio 5. Radio trails have specific things that are common in most trailers. We concluded that the conventions of radio trails were voice over, audio clips and background music. These conventions were present in all of the radio trails that we looked at. We used all of these conventions when we created our radio trail as theyre all vital aspects in order to make it sound professional. We used a voice over to tell the audience what the documentary is about and where and when they can watch it. This is the main advertising tool as it encourages the audience to watch the documentary. We slightly challenged conventions with the voice over because we used a different voice to the voice we used in the documentary. We did this to add some variety but this could affect the way it links in with the documentary. We used the audio clips from the documentary to include bits of speech from the expert interviews and vox pops. This gives the audience a more in depth view of what the documentary is about. This follows conventions as it links the documentary and the radio trail together very well. Finally we used the background music that is similar to the music used in the documentary. This also follows conventions as it allows the audience to find links between the documentary and the ancillary products.