Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation: Question 1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

For our A2 media coursework we were given a brief which explained that we must create the first opening 5 minutes of a TV documentary as well as two ancillary products: a radio trailer and double page spread for a TV listings which will be used to advertise our documentary. We knew that in order to complete these tasks efficiently we first had to carry out intensive research into what documentaries are about, including the different types and structures.

We discovered a theorist called Bill Nicholls who came up with 6 different ‘Documentary Modes’ (2001). We found out about the many modes of documentary including; poetic, participatory, reflexive, performative, observational and expositional. The decided that the most common styles of documentary are:The expositional mode; it aims to educate the audience and portray an accurate representation of reality using a logical order, and a voice of god narration through out the documentary.The Participatory/ Performative modes are very similar as they both include a filmmaker who is present through out the documentary. They provide their opinions and share their emotions and experiences with the audience. The filmmaker therefore influences the documentary, for example this is shown in Morgan Spurlocks ‘Super size me.’ We decided that the expositional mode would be best suited to our documentary as it is only 5 minutes long so we thought that a voice of god narration throughout would be more effective as we wanted to present facts on social media and make sure we get a variety of opinions portrayed in the documentary so that the audience could make up their own minds on the topic.

Our Documentaries narrative structure is ‘open’ we chose to follow this structure as throughout our documentary we gathered the thoughts and opinions of experts as well as students who are the same age as our target audience to provide more than one view and argument on our topic of social media. We intended on our documentary being informative and investigative so we decided to follow theorist Claude Levi- Strauss’ idea of binary oppositions. We thought this was best suited to our documentary as it allowed us to show the ‘Good Vs Evil’ on how social media affects our generation, as this allowed our audience to make up their own opinions on the topic.

After we carried out our research we had a clear idea of the type of documentary we wanted to create, so we decided to research into similar documentaries such as ‘Supersize me’, ‘Steve Jobs iChanged the world’ and ‘The killing screens’ in order to learn what makes a professional documentary such as the typical codes and conventions.

InterviewsIt was evident that interviews are used in every documentary; they are used to portray opinions. ‘Experts’ are used in order to share their professional opinions and reiterate a point being made, these interviews are more factual and often who the audience appreciates as they are professionals in their field of work. Other interviewees are known as ‘Vox pops’ whom are normal people (voice of a population) giving their own personal opinions on a subject matter by answering questions. In our documentary we included 3 experts: An instagram activist, a guidance counselor and College Principal. We also included a variation of Vox pops from students around the college.

Our Vox pop interview. It was important to include a variation of Vox pops as they present various opinions to our audience, they are also the same age as our target audience so will therefore share the same opinions and thoughts as them. This makes them more relatable and therefore more appealing to our audience.

Expert interview with Guidance counsellor Julie Maitland. Julie has been used to give her personal experience and opinions on key points, this will perhaps contrast the vox pops opinions as it her own professional opinion so our documentary will therefore contain a variation of opinions, which is what we wanted to do in order for our audience to make up their own opinions on social media.

Similarly. Supersize me includes both Vox pops and Experts. The Vox pops are people who he finds walking around the streets and are therefore seen as unbiased as they have been randomly selected.

He also includes a wide variation of Experts. For example throughout the documentary we hear numerous health experts talk about the effect McDonalds’s is having on his health. Spurlock chooses to ignore their advice about stopping eating McDonalds which is a shock factor the audience as the experts are deemed respectable and reliable people so are shocked when he ignores their professional advice.

Vox pop used in supersize me

Expert used in

Supersize me

R ule of thirds/Framing/Text and Titles

I followed the convention typically used in interviews, which is the rule of thirds, which means the eye line of the interviewee must be 1/3rd of the way down the

frame, so that they are usually on the same eye level as the audience. The interviewee also is usually placed left or right to the frame which oscillates in order to make it more visually interesting to the audience and is another key

convention used in interviews,Text is used to anchor the expert the interviewee is usually placed on the

opposite side to the interviewee so that it is easier to red for the audience, we followed this convention however, this convention was not followed in supersize

me who positions the text on the same side as the interviewee.Text adds realism as it makes it clear to the audience that this is an expert who

knows what they are talking about, as they can clearly see who they are and what they do. The interviewee also does not look directly into the camera. We

decided to follow this convention as it made our documentary more professional and this way the audience would not feel as if they are being force fed

information but instead are getting an insight into the expert’s opinion.

Visual Coding (mise en scene)It is very important in documentaries to take into consideration the mise en scene such as the background, props and costume. For example the mise en scene is usually relevant to the interviewee, it will reflect their work or personal environment as well as their occupation.

We consciously decided to film the principal in his office in front of his computer as this reflects his profession. He is also wearing a suit, which also reflects his occupation, as people who wear suits are often deemed ‘important’. The mise en scene adds realism and reinforces the fact that he is an important person, which makes the audience to value his opinions.

Supersize meOur Documentary

This convention is also evident in supersize me as Spurlock has chose to interview a man who loves McDonalds, in McDonalds, this reinforces the fact that this man loves visiting McDonald’s everyday, he is also wearing casual clothing which shows he is just a regular guy and so adds realism.

Shot types:We decided to use a tripod to film the majority of our footage as it gave us the ability to film various shot types such as Zoom, panning shot, over the shoulder shot and an Establishing Shot. This allowed us to create a much more professional documentary as it was clear that documentaries use a variation of shot types to create meaning and make the documentary visually interesting for the audience.

An Establishing shot is conventionally used to set the scene for the audience. This shot was used to introduce the sixth form college before introducing Julie Maitland. Therefore we were able to et the scene for the audience

A similar shot has been used in supersize me, they have used an establishing shot of McDonalds to set the scene for the audience.

A medium close up has also been used in supersize me during interviews; however Spurlock does not use a tripod. Instead he uses a hand held camera shot, which makes the interviews less formal and in my opinion less professional. Therefore I chose to always use a tripod when conducting interviews as it helped me keep to other conventions such as the rule of thirds and helped maintain a steady shot, making the documentary much more professional looking

Cutaways’I discovered that an important feature in a documentary is the use of cut aways’. These are conventionally used to break up interviews and avoid jump outs. They are often edited in, in order to illustrate a point being made by the interviewee, making it visually aiding for the audience as it adds meaning and it allows the documentary to flow.

We decided to add a cutaway of a person using Instagram to edit their photo to reinforce the idea that the generation is obsessed with the social networking site. And also makes the audience think about how editing a photo may reflect how people perceive themselves .Therefore we have used the cutaway in the conventional way as it has been used to reinforce a point and add meaning.

Archival footageArchival footage is essential when creating a mixed documentary, it was a key convention for this genre and so we knew that it was important we included it in our documentary. It can be used in many ways, i.e. as a cutaway to reinforce a point being made or to show contrast between then and now.

We decided to include archival footage at the beginning of our documentary in order to introduce how the use

Our Documentary

Supersize me

of social media has grown. We look at what people got up to before social media such as roller skating, hanging out on the streets and at the beach with their friends etc. We did this in order to emphasize how dramatically our society has changed trough the years, and make a point about how social media has effected our generation.

Similarly, Supersize me also included archival footage at the beginning of the documentary. The

footage shows young children singing the ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ song Morgan spurlock has used his footage in a similar way to us as he has used it in order to

make his audience think and question whether this is right.

Facts and statisticsA documentaries main purpose will be to inform and educate, therefore documentaries must include facts, statistics and opinions in order to educate their audience. This can be done in many ways.

Morgan spurlock illustrates facts by using graphics, which is appealing to the audience as it makes the documentary more visual as they are learning something new in a fun way.

We followed this convention in our documentary too as it was evident we

had to include facts in order to educate our audience and make our documentary believable. We chose to present our facts in a more visual way too. We included facts about instagram and decided to present them using percentages and photos posted onto instagram. This meant that we were still able to stick to the use of social media which made our documentary look very professional as the same themes were being presented throughout.

Title of Documentary

In super-size me the documentary question is posed 5 minutes in; this is effective as the audience are first drawn in due to the use of archival footage and facts/statistics and therefore feel the need to keep watching to see what the documentary is actually aboutAs supersize me is a participatory documentary, Spurlock is often in front

of the camera, therefore we first see him asking a series of rhetorical questions, making the audience think before saying ‘supersize me’ he therefore introduceswhat the documentary is about which is then followed by the title page which plays with music in the background.

As our documentary follows the expositional mode, it has a voice of God narration. We followed a similar structure as supersize me, which is also conventionally used in

documentaries. First it was to introduce the question once the audience had been drawn in. We also posed rhetorical questions to our audience before introducing the final question, which is what we were going to be investigating. We decided to write our question out on a mobile phone as a Facebook status. Therefore we did not conventionally have a title page which poses the name of our documentary, however we felt as though it was much more interesting to pose a question to the audience so that they know what the documentary is really about. Also we believed the use of a Facebook status to introduce the question was more interesting as it linked to the topic of social media.

SoundSound is very important, Documentaries include: A voice over, diegetic sound , non-diegetic sound, A presenter and Background music.Super-size me used a presenter in their documentary as well as a voice over which worked well as it made the documentary feel much more personal to the audience, which fits with in with the reflexive mode, as the audience are able to sympathize with Spurlock throughout. On the other hand we wanted our documentary to be informative and felt as though the best way to do this was to have a voice of God narration throughout also as our documentary is based at college we did not feel the need to have a presenter as all scenes take place around the college, which the audience will be familiar with.