1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product aimed to use similar conventions associated with a formal BBC news night type documentary. Whilst constructing a documentary in a particular informative public service type style documentary it is important that certain codes and convention are followed in order for the documentary to be concise. In looking at documentary codes to follow we thought it would be best to not plagiarize a newsnight documentary although it is important to follow some of the styles they adopt. If a documentary seems too familiar with the audience then often focus on the topic is lost and the audience may loose interest in the documentary and the avenues explored within it. So we knew that a change in some of the forms could keep the audience engaged.
Our task was to create an opening 5 minute sequence to a documentary which would be suitable for the BBC (British Broadcasting Centre). There aim is to be educate, entertain and engage viewers whilst being formative also. My product also needed to convey similar values and so we thought it would be best to use a similar logo style that would represent the same ideas as the BBC. Our documentary would to be broadcasted by Havering College
Television. We shortened this down in to a logo style similar to that of the BBC logo which is seen on every broadcast (see fig1), this lead us to create the following which would feature on our documentary.
In the research and planning stage we felt that the Phil Nichols per formative approach was a style we wanted to focus are documentary around. This is defined as “the mode of documentary which emphasizes the subjective nature of the documentarian as well as acknowledging the subjective reading of the audience - notions of objectivity are replaced by "evocation and affect".This mode emphasizes the emotional and social impact on the audience” By including this mode, it enabled us to engage the viewers and also allowing them to form there own opinion on child safety, in this growing age of technology. Our media product challenges real media product as interviews from Semar Jolly (police officer) and Toby Marshall (parent) aided the documentary as they gave diverse opinion on the topic matter.
When filming, using the rule of thirds is essential in framing our interviews (see fig2 & 3) as this rule attracts focus from the audience to the interviewee without the possibility of being distracted by other objects in the frame. The subject should occupy two thirds of the frame, this Is apparent in all of our interviews as it shows continuity. With reference to Steve Neals theory of ‘repetition and variation’ as the rule of thirds adds this repetition to our media product. The documentary could lose focus or become less interesting if this style of framing was not adopted in our media product. The interviews needed to b framed well to allow the audience to engage with the interviewee and most importantly be able to focus on the views being put across. We tried to emphasise the mise en scene in the frame and if possible relate it to our documentary topic.
We tried to keep the continuity of our documentary constant throughout which is a key aspect of any documentary, this convention was important and remained a key part throughout our groups construction of the media product. Continuity as a convention displays reality to the audience. If the continuity was broken and the documentary didn’t flow, it could show that the documentary was over edited thus leaving the viewer unable to follow the documentary or explore the views opinions and facts it has to offer. This could also leave question over weather the documentary is fair and impartial. The use of accurate and well framed cutaways helped the continuity of our documentary. The narration (voice over) is another crucial convention of the documentary. The voice over aside from the interviews is the only other main source of questionable debate throughout the documentary shown to the audience. It was important for our narration like many others to remain unbiased as this could sway the opinion of viewers and also to act as the main anchor of the media product. Narration is an important convention as it delivers facts and information to the audience, thus supporting the issues being raised. It was important that our voice over followed similar codes and conventions of many documentaries. The narrator needed to speak clearly have received pronunciation and use formal English. We used Andy Poperwell, he’s speech matched the codes and conventions of a classic narrator as his dialect is easily understandable to the broad range of our audience.
Tommy Camden’s relaxed, comfortable and informal appearance is in keeping with the conventions of a child. Fig 3
Figure 3 Figure 4 However Burt Jones’s appears differently as his posture is upright and his clothing is more formal, highlighting the contrast in status and his importance in society. Also in the background you can see an office setting, giving a more formal approach and creates conventions of his intellectual capabilities. Fig 4
In conclusion to this I feel that our media product follows many of the codes and conventions of a documentary, however I d o feel there are some alteration of these convention in order to create some variety and add entertainment to documentary. In order for our documentary to be informative and concise many of the codes and conventions are similar to a BBC styled documentary although to keep the audience engaged in our topic I feel some dissimilarities have been made.
Our media product aimed to use similar conventions associated with a formal BBC news night type documentary. Whilst constructing a documentary in a particular informative public service type style documentary it is important that certain codes and convention are followed in order for the documentary to be concise. In looking at documentary codes to follow we thought it would be best to not plagiarize a newsnight documentary although it is important to follow some of the styles they adopt. If a documentary seems too familiar with the audience then often focus on the topic is lost and the audience may loose interest in the documentary and the avenues explored within it. So we knew that a change in some of the forms could keep the audience engaged.
Our task was to create an opening 5 minute sequence to a documentary which would be suitable for the BBC (British Broadcasting Centre). There aim is to be educate, entertain and engage viewers whilst being formative also. My product also needed to convey similar values and so we thought it would be best to use a similar logo style that would represent the same ideas as the BBC. Our documentary would to be broadcasted by Havering College
Television. We shortened this down in to a logo style similar to that of the BBC logo which is seen on every broadcast (see fig1), this lead us to create the following which would feature on our documentary.
In the research and planning stage we felt that the Phil Nichols per formative approach was a style we wanted to focus are documentary around. This is defined as “the mode of documentary which emphasizes the subjective nature of the documentarian as well as acknowledging the subjective reading of the audience - notions of objectivity are replaced by "evocation and affect".This mode emphasizes the emotional and social impact on the audience” By including this mode, it enabled us to engage the viewers and also allowing them to form there own opinion on child safety, in this growing age of technology. Our media product challenges real media product as interviews from Semar Jolly (police officer) and Toby Marshall (parent) aided the documentary as they gave diverse opinion on the topic matter.
When filming, using the rule of thirds is essential in framing our interviews (see fig2 & 3) as this rule attracts focus from the audience to the interviewee without the possibility of being distracted by other objects in the frame. The subject should occupy two thirds of the frame, this Is apparent in all of our interviews as it shows continuity. With reference to Steve Neals theory of ‘repetition and variation’ as the rule of thirds adds this repetition to our media product. The documentary could lose focus or become less interesting if this style of framing was not adopted in our media product. The interviews needed to b framed well to allow the audience to engage with the interviewee and most importantly be able to focus on the views being put across. We tried to emphasise the mise en scene in the frame and if possible relate it to our documentary topic.
We tried to keep the continuity of our documentary constant throughout which is a key aspect of any documentary, this convention was important and remained a key part throughout our groups construction of the media product. Continuity as a convention displays reality to the audience. If the continuity was broken and the documentary didn’t flow, it could show that the documentary was over edited thus leaving the viewer unable to follow the documentary or explore the views opinions and facts it has to offer. This could also leave question over weather the documentary is fair and impartial. The use of accurate and well framed cutaways helped the continuity of our documentary. The narration (voice over) is another crucial convention of the documentary. The voice over aside from the interviews is the only other main source of questionable debate throughout the documentary shown to the audience. It was important for our narration like many others to remain unbiased as this could sway the opinion of viewers and also to act as the main anchor of the media product. Narration is an important convention as it delivers facts and information to the audience, thus supporting the issues being raised. It was important that our voice over followed similar codes and conventions of many documentaries. The narrator needed to speak clearly have received pronunciation and use formal English. We used Andy Poperwell, he’s speech matched the codes and conventions of a classic narrator as his dialect is easily understandable to the broad range of our audience.
Tommy Camden’s relaxed, comfortable and informal appearance is in keeping with the conventions of a child. Fig 3
Figure 3 Figure 4 However Burt Jones’s appears differently as his posture is upright and his clothing is more formal, highlighting the contrast in status and his importance in society. Also in the background you can see an office setting, giving a more formal approach and creates conventions of his intellectual capabilities. Fig 4
In conclusion to this I feel that our media product follows many of the codes and conventions of a documentary, however I d o feel there are some alteration of these convention in order to create some variety and add entertainment to documentary. In order for our documentary to be informative and concise many of the codes and conventions are similar to a BBC styled documentary although to keep the audience engaged in our topic I feel some dissimilarities have been made.
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