Question 1

Question 1Codes and Conventions of my Documentary

We have followed the codes and conventions of professional documentaries after we watched a series of documentaries then listing their codes and conventions. We watched ‘The Music Biz’, ‘The Devil Made me Do it’ and ‘That Thing: Lara Croft’. These are all single strand documentaries with one line of exposition which is conventional for the documentary we have created.

Type of DocumentaryAs our documentary contains observation from

our cutaways and narration from our voiceover, we can say that our documentary is mixed, as it contains a variety of these different elements to advance the exposition of the documentary. Evidence of this is shown through the combination of voiceover and cutaways, which is contained within most if not all documentaries. Furthermore observation can be made by comments, as aural observation by narrators or interviewees is just as important in the documentary.

Themes

In our documentary, the theme is generally about tanning, which is unique to every documentary. However the power of the media is something many documentaries share in common. This convention can be seen in ‘The Devil Made me Do it’, a real documentary we analysed. Theme of the media is portrayed in how music and artists influence teenagers. Similarly to this, ours reflects on how celebrity culture affects young people tan.

InterviewsWe have followed the codes and conventions of interviews after making a list whilst watching and analysing professional interviews. For example we have followed the convention of shooting the interview in medium close up. They are on the left or right hand third of the screen, following the compositional rule of thirds. Also the eye line is a third of the way down the screen. This is conventional as the correct composition ensure that the viewer is attracted to the interviewee whilst they talk, and makes this interesting and eye catching.

To follow conventions of interviews we made sure that the interviewee was looking diagonally across the frame to the interviewer. For example in this interview from ‘The Music Biz’, the interviewee is looking diagonally across to the interviewee who would have been sitting on the far right hand side of the camera. In our documentary, Mrs Battle the sociologist is doing the same, looking at the interview diagonally across from her. We also made sure none of the interviewees look at the camera, as this would be distracting for the viewer, and no one in professional documentaries look at the camera.

The graphics on the interviews are conventionally a white sans serif font, which is in the bottom of the screen. As shown by the examples below, in the real documentary, if the interviewee is on the right hand side of the screen, the graphic is on the bottom left. Similarly in our documentary, in the example shown we have followed this convention by placing the graphic in the bottom right, if the interviewee is on the left. The graphic is superimposed onto the frame, and conventionally shows the interviewees name and profession/ important piece of information. This can be seen in our documentary as well.

The mise en scene is extremely important in interviews as it helps to anchor the themes and topics of the documentary. For example in this interview from the documentary ‘The Music Biz’ the fact that he is managing direction of virgin records is emphasised by the virgin logo superimposed into the frame. This is an important convention as it keeps the audience interested and is a key factor in the anchoring of the documentary. I have shown how I have followed this by giving the example of the Gym Instructor Joe Deer who was filmed at his place of work. His managing status is emphasised by the computer and his desk, and the tanning advert in the background emphasises the theme of tanning in our documentary.

Cutaways are also another conventional way to anchor the documentary. The also serve to remove jump cuts from interviews which make the interview seem amateur and unprofessional. In general it is conventional to use straight cuts in the editing of these documentaries. On the left are cutaways from the professional documentaries. They help reinforce what the interviewee is talking about, and can link into their next utterance. I have followed this convention by including cutaways such as those on the right in our interviews.

The cutaways when properly edited make sure that everything is linked and continuity is kept which is essential in real documentaries.

EditingIn terms of the editing, we followed the conventions of quick straight cuts, as this helps keep the interest of the viewer and make sure they do not get bored. The inclusion of cutaways and editing cuts ensures the viewer is not watching the same sequence over and over again. For example, this sequence from my own documentary is using straight cuts, to break up an interview.

Like in real documentaries, the use of creative camerawork and editing is essential in creating an interesting and eye catching documentary. Below are examples from my own documentary indicating the creative camerawork that we used.

Cutaway edited by speeding it up for a ‘whip shot’ like effect panning up the bottle

The sun bed turning on was put in fast motion to make it look like a flash, which is an eye catching and interesting to show the sun bed.

SoundConventionally the voiceover is done by an adult male using Standard English, to make the documentary appear serious and to make people take notice. We followed this by using a narrator who fits this, for both our documentary and radio trailer. Also we used a relevant music bed in our documentary, for example ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ was used in our title sequence to connote sun and holidays. This can be seen in real documentaries like ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ when Marilyn Manson songs are played in between his interviews. It is also conventional to make sure this does not interfere with interviews or voiceovers, which we ensured in our documentary by constantly checking the sound levels of our documentary.