IntroductionFor my A2 media course work project me and my group
were asked to create a five minute documentary, TV listings
magazine and a radio trailer. We began by brain storming our ideas
on what our documentary will be based on and how we will approach
it. We came to an agreement that we will base our documentary on
video games and how it is the source of violence for young people.
We chose to create a documentary on videogames, as it was something
that we had knowledge on as we were consumers and knew many people
who were affected or play video games. We decided to call our
documentary out of controller as it was a play on word, which is
short and can be easily remembered. The title of our documentary
has both of the topics that our documentary is based on such as
controller, which is used to play video games, and out of control
which links in with, how young people have no control when they
paly violent video games.We decided that our documentary would be
an expository mode documentary as this style of documentary speaks
directly to the viewer. We thought that this was an appropriate
mode to use as our documentary was serious and we wanted to put
forward a strong biased argument against violent video games.
Before creating our documentary we had researched into different
documentaries although they were not expository mode. This gave me
an insight into how to create a documentary. What I learnt from
documentaries is that structure was one of the key elements of a
documentary the start must be just as effective as the ending. We
chose to air our documentary on chanel 4 as this is a suitable
channel for our documentary. This is because there are many
documentaries that have been aired on channel for such as educating
essex.
Analysis of documentaries Voiceover and sound- The documentaries
I watched either had a male presenter or a male voice over. This
was form of a convention as male characters are seen as a dominant
and leading characters (voice of a god). When creating our
documentary we also used a male voice over as our documentary was
serious and informative. The voice over was clear and spoke at a
natural pace so that the audience can clearly understand what was
being said. Also the background music is turned down whenever the
voiceover speaking so that the audience do not get distracted by
the music. However the is an important convention illustrated by
super-size me as the music sets the tone of the documentary. The
music used in super-size me varied depending on the scene for
example the documentary was filmed in America and so they used
country music to set the tone of a scene to portray American
lifestyle. In our documentary we used the same music throughout the
documentary as it set the tone well. The music we used was drum and
bass which was fast paced. We used this type of music as it sounded
like typical video gaming background music which sets the video
gaming theme.
In the image at the bottom we interviewed julie waitland the
student development officer. In this shot we applied all the
conventions, the key was to get the perfect camera angle so that
all the conventions I have spoke about can get get into the scene.
For example we can clearly see that the interview is taken in her
office as we can see the laptop and she has personalised the room
such as the star stuck on the blinds. Although this an expert
interview julie is dressed up in causual clothing, however this
reflect her job as she is workin in a college enviroment with
teenagers. Expert interviews were usually one on interviews were
the interviewee is directly talking with the interviewer. This was
illustrated by super size me. What we learnt was that the key
element to an expert interview is that the background and the
camera angle. The camera is usually placed on a tripod and has very
little or no movement at all. This makes the interview look
professional as expert interviews are usually factual or
knowledgeable. The interviewee will never look into the camera lens
but they will look at the interviewer. The expert interviews are
taken as if the camera is not there. The camera angle is usually
taken from a medium close up, this camera angle is appropriate to
use as it shows the facial expressions in more detail as well as
the background. At the start of a professional interview we see the
name and the profession of the interviewee. This is used so that
the auidence can establish who the person is and what their
occupation is. InterviewsExpert interviews and editing-
In contrast to the scene with Julie Maitland, Nick Waring who is
a teacher is more smartly dressed (shirt) and looks more
intelligent as he is wearing glasses. The apple mac links in with
the fact that he is a media teacher and the image of the video game
poster links in with the topic he is talking about as well as the
fact that in his occupation he is around computing technology
making him an expert.
Whereas compared to the professional documentary we can see a
contrast in the codes and conventions used such as the medium close
up as well as the background showing the book shelf shows that the
interviewee is knowledgeable. Also we have used the convention of
the name and occupation of the interviewee, but we have not used
the banner, which we should have used as it makes the text stand
out. We chose not to use this convention as our documentary was
aimed at younger people and we wanted the audience to focus on what
she is saying. In this interview the expert is a man and is wearing
a suit, which shows that he is a professional and has authority.
Compared to our documentary which shows a female interviewee who is
wearing casual clothes shows that she does not have as much
authority whereas nick the media teacher does. We used this
stereotype as men are seen as being good a technical computing
subjects, also men are seen as being interested in video games and
scientific things related to violent video games.
Vox pop interviews- Comparing our documentary with super-size
me, the vox pop interviews in super size me looked unprofessional.
For example they used hand held cameras, as the shots taken were
shaky and were usually taken outdoors asking the members of the
public for quick and unplanned interviews. These conventions were
used so that there is a clear differentiation between expert
interviews and vox pop interviews. In our documentary we applied
some of these conventions but we used a different approach in our
vox pop interviews. We wanted our documentary to look professional
and so instead of using hand held camera we used a tri pod in our
interviews. We used a tripod, as it was easier to film our
interviews as well as we found that we could get a better camera
angle and show the characteristics of a vox pop interview. Such as
we filmed our vox pop interviews in a canteen whereas super-size me
had outdoor interviews. However the different approach we used was
that we filmed it in a college cafeteria with students in the
background as well the sound conversations and chairs moving
against the floor. This helped differentiate the expert interviews
from our vox pop interviews. By using a tripod we could get the
interviewee in our shot as well as the background showing the
environment of a typical college canteen which links back to our
topic of young people. Also I think that it makes our documentary
look more professional as the camera is still which gives the
audience a chance to analyse the scene.
Background and archive footage- Super-size me use background and
archive footage during their interviews. In our documentary we also
used background and archive footage as it breaks up interview, also
it acts as evidence from what the interviewee is talking about, it
makes the interviews more interesting and less boring. We used an
essential fading out tool when the scenes switched from the
interview scenes to archive or background footage which worked
really well as the audience can establish the link between the both
scenes.
Title top left of the first pageDifferent images
Quotes in large fonts
Here I have compared our documentary with a PMS3 magazine
article. Before we created our magazine we researched into existing
products by analysing them a picking out all of the coded and
convention for a TV listings magazine. A convention that we thought
was important was the main image must attract the reader and must
be symbolic and have an importance towards the article. Here we
have used our main image as the background as we thought that this
image links in with the title of our documentary controller. Also
we thought that it worked well as we had seen many magazines which
all looked the same as the others such as having an image on one
page and the article on the other. But we found a magazine which
looked different, and we have used the same layout as this magazine
and applied it to our own. We also used other small images taken
from our documentary which breaks up the text and gives the page a
bit more life to it. Another convention we used was having quoted
from the documentary. We placed our quote at the bottom of the
double page spread in a large red font to catch the readers
attention. We decided to place it at the bottom going onto both
pages as it went with the layout as there was enough space for
it.
Radio trailer-We carried out research into other existing radio
trailer which gave an insight into how the layout of our radio
trailer should be. We noticed that most of the radio trailers used
short quotes and clips from the actual documentary which gets the
listeners attention.The music in the radio trailer is the similar
music used in the documentary. We thought that this would be a good
idea as many existing products also did the same. It gives the
documentary as professional look as there is consistency with
conventions. We also noticed that most of the voiceovers were the
same person as in the documentary. We also applied this as the
listener can easily recognise what documentary they are watching
and makes it feel the audience feel like they know who the person
is. We also noticed that most of the voiceovers were male voices.
We also used a male voice as we thought that we would use the
stereotype of men being leading and help guide the audience. Our
documentary was 30 seconds long as other documentaries we
researched were around 30 seconds. We thought that 30 second was
appropriate as we wanted it to be short which gets the message
across quick. We didnt want to overwhelm the listener with
information as we wanted them to take in and remember the main part
of the radio trailer which was the date, time and the channel the
documentary will come on. So we say all of that towards the end
which would be the last thing they remember.