Question 1

Question 1In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Introduction

For our advanced media portfolio, we had to create the opening 5 minutes to a documentary, a TV listing promoting the documentary, as well as a 30 second radio advert. As a group, we decided to investigate teenagers and whether they prioritise sport or school. We wanted to see what teenagers and parents as well as experts thought about the amount of time that teenagers spend in school and if the amount of exercise they do weekly gives them enough physical benefits. In order to do this we had to interview sports experts, the public and discover our own stats using online software and our target audience, parents of teens. When we gathered footage of sport, interviews, vox pops and any background footage, we would edit it in premier pro to create our final product. Using conventions and codes of documentary's, that we found during research and planning of our topic, we could create a successful final piece with two linked products, the radio and TV listing. After completing my products, I have gathered audience feedback and experience and by evaluating how well the portfolio went, I will begin by thinking about the way my media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Documentary

I will be comparing my documentary to Morgan Spurlocks Supersize me.While examining the influence of the fast food industry, Morgan Spurlock personally explores the consequences on his health of a diet of solely McDonald's food for one month. In this documentary, he explores many media conventions that have also been used in my documentary. I will be exploring the differences and similarities between the two documentary's as a way of evaluating my product.

Sound

In Morgan Spurlocks documentary he uses a variety of upbeat songs that relate to the topic of the documentary for example Fat bottom girls by Queen, when showing B roll of fat people linking with the topic of fast food. It adds an element of humour to the documentary. This is similar to my documentary as we used an upbeat song called willy wallbanger which fits with the humour as well as it being upbeat and fun to listen to. This music made the documentary sound more appealing and when the clips matched the beat it made it easier to watch. Other sound that was used in both documentaries were voice overs in the form of a narrator and speech from subjects on screen such as experts in both cases (Food experts in Supersize me and sports experts in Teens in Sport). The music in both cases changes in volume when interviews, voxpops and stats were present on screen to allow for the audience not to lose interest. Our documentary uses this convention in order to keep the attention and focus of the target audience. Voiceovers were also used in both to inform the audience and guide the direction of the documentary. However, we challenged conventions of a documentary as Morgan spurlock appeared as a presentor as well as a narrator. We decided not to do this in ours as it would not suit the theme of the documentary.

Archival footage

Archival footage is used heavily in my documentary as a way of including famous clips of sports people (teenagers such as Tom Daley) and other sports that as a group, we weren’t able to access to film ourselves. We also found raw footage of boxing matches at Hall green boxing club and teen netball. This extra clips help to develop the documentary, similar to real life media products and documentary's. Spurlocks supersize me also uses archival footage to show adverts such as McDonalds adverts to add context and depth into the argument as well as using interviews from health experts talking about the topic previous to when the documentary was filmed. This is similar to our documentary where we use Tom Daley to demonstrate a real teenager who struggled to balance his school work with sport. In both ours and Supersize me, archival footage showing news articles are used to emphasise a point and show the legal side of the argument and how it is portrayed in the media. By using this type of footage we are developing the media text and allowing the audience to understand that what is being shown is realistic and can be relied on.

Vox pops

Vox pops were used in our documentary to find out information from the public on what they think about sport and teenagers and their own experiences with it. We needed to use this convention in order to follow and develop real media conventions. It also added extra information for the audience to see and understand to support the views of the experts and allow the audience to develop a preferred reading by watching our documentary. We asked the public (all ages and genders) what sport they did at school and if they focused more on homework or sport. In Morgan Spurlocks Supersize me, he used voxpops to ask the public about fast food and how much they eat weekly. This supports the expert opinions and preferred reading of the documentary. The framing of the shot is a mid shot so the subject can be seen easily. Mise en scene was also used for these shots as in our documentary we planned to film the public outside of a sports shop but due to planning problems we couldn’t, we filmed in public instead. This showed the audience that they are the general public and will be able to relate to them. In supersize me, the vox pops are filmed outside of fast food places.

Transitions and subjects

In our documentary we used simple transitions between shots and scenes. This created a visually effective way of putting the documentary together and helping to make it flow. For example, in a shot of the sixth form college Solihull, we showed an image with a transition in place making it seem it is moving, this allowed the shot to transition nicely into the next shot of B roll about the college. Supersize me also uses these types of transitions when moving between different scenes in the documentary. For example, when talking about a legal report about a case study to do with fast food and obesity, it transitions into a different clip of an expert interview. It allows the film to flow across the different conventions used.

Subjects were a huge part of our documentary. They include any person that appears in front of the camera. (sport experts such as the dance teacher and boxing coach, and in supersize me, the narrator and any interviews with the public.)

B roll and montage

B roll is the extra little clips that adds depth to the video and often fills visual time when a voice over is in place. In my documentary, we used B roll in the form of sports clips like a montage. We synced the clips with the background music in order for it to flow. B roll was also used when introducing places such as Solihull town centre and Solihull sixth form college, where some of the footage was shot. For example when introducing public interviews, vox pops, we introduced Solihull town centre to fit with the mise en scene of the shot. We also shot B roll during interviews, such as video footage being shown of the boxing gym during the interview with boxing coach Thomas Chaney. B roll is also used in Super size me when talking about a range of things, for example when discussing stats about fast food places, shots of different locations McDonalds are shown on screen. These shots of fast food places were also shot in a montage type style to make it appear more appealing to watch by the target audience. This means we used and developed a real life media convention in our documentary.

Stats

Statistics were used in our documentary to add a sense of valid information. The stats all linked in with the topic of sport and teenagers so that the target audience would be interested in them. These stats show the audience that the results are real and can be trusted, whereas an interview may be exaggerated or mediated. There is no way to change these stats without lying about them, whereas for interviews they can be mediated to change the way they are seen. Stats were used in the form of stop motion in our documentary to add visual elements to help the audience understand them. However, from audience feedback, there appears to be too many stats used and some viewers got bored in this section. Stats are also used in Morgan Spurlocks supersize me as they show information to the audience about the topic. It interests the target audience and add extra details about the documentary. This shows another way we used and developed a real life media convention in our documentary.

Interviews

Interviews were a vital part of my documentary as they showed a clear expert view on the argument, do teenagers prioritise sport or school and is the balance healthy? Surprisingly, the experts show mixed views in the documentary which can be argued to challenge real media conventions. This could be because in Morgan Spurlocks supersize me, pretty much all of the experts believe that people eat too much fast food and it causes health problems. Out of the three experts in Teens in sport, 1 believes they don’t do enough sport, one believes that sometimes sport is the only option and the other believes that a balance of the two is healthy. This links in with the open narrative we tried to portray where the audience will have their own opinion on the matter based on their own experiences in life to do with the topic. The framing of the shot was the same throughout the two documentary’s. A medium close up was used so that they looked professional and their emotions and facial expressions could clearly be seen by the target audience. Mise en scene was also used in these areas for both documentary’s. E.g in Teens in sport, the experts were wearing sports clothes and in their expected location (dance teacher in dance studio) and in supersize me, doctors were wearing lab coats and in doctors labs.

Mode

The mode we used in our documentary was an expositional mode. This is the most common mode used in real life media products and documentary’s. This is however, different to Morgan Spurlocks mode which was performative. This is because he becomes a subject and the main person n his documentary. He addresses the audience in an emotional and direct way which is different to our documentary as we address the audience in a formal and informative way by not addressing them personally. We had a preferred reading in our documentary which follows Stuart Halls audience perception theory. We decided it use this and expositional mode as it was easy to create and allowed us to use normal conventions for our product such as a narrator.

Magazine double page spread

I will be comparing my double page spread with ‘special delivery’ promoting one born every minute, a documentary about babies and hospitals.

Headline

The headline is one of the most important features of both articles. In our article, we show the title of the documentary as the title of the article, this is to show that they clearly link together to the audience. The layout of the title is different to the special delivery article however. But, it is usually placed in the top left corner of a double page spread. This shows that we have followed usual media conventions, but it appears that the special delivery article did not. The text is very big for our title and is colourful, this will stand out to the audience and make it easy to read. The title for special delivery is in white lettering but does stand out against the background image. By making our title the biggest text on the page and on the left hand side of the page, we have followed and used a real life media convention in our double page spread.

Quotes

We used a quote in our article in order to link our double page spread directly with an interview in the documentary. The quote relates to the topic of sport and the health benefits that it provides as it mentions it keeping the body in good shape. This direct quote will also link in with the preferred reading as it shows the view that sport is good for you as a teenager. It shows that we have used a real media convention as a quote is also used in the one born every minute special delivery article. It is also related to the topic of the documentary so it will relate to any reader who likes to watch the documentary.

Page numbers, by line, magazine name and date

Page numbers are used in our magazine as they are an important convention of a magazine article double page spread. They allow the reader to find the page they want via the contents page. This is also used in the special delivery article.

A by line is also used in both TV listings as it will tell the reader who wrote the article and inform them of any information they may need to know about the writer. We have used a real convention.

The magazine name is shown in the bottom corner of our magazine double page spread as it will let any reader know what magazine this article is from, it is an important convention of a magazine article.

Finally a date is shown in both ours and the real article, it will inform the reader of when it was published, it is also an important convention of a real magazine which we have used in our TV listing.

Article and drop cap and columns

The article in our double page spread’s layout is in three columns with a quote and image throughout. This is similar to special delivery’s article, but not the same. Their article only shows two columns, but the article length is similar and both display quotes from the documentary. Also, both articles use a drop cap to show the starts of the article and to make it clear. By using all of these things we demonstrate using real life media conventions in our double page spread. Both articles are on a clear white background with black font so stand out easily to the reader. This allows the target audience to read and understand the article clearly.

Main image and captions

The main images on our documentary is very different to normal magazine covers. This is a way that we challenged real life media conventions. We didn’t have one main image, instead we had 5 smaller images in a polaroid style to make up the image of a pin board to attract teenagers. All of the images that were used were from the documentary and frozen to create an image. They explore different areas of the documentary such as public interviews and sports clips. In the special delivery article, there is only one main image, this is unlikely to be frozen from the documentary as it is staged and they are looking directly at the camera (direct address) which is a common magazine convention. We challenged this in order to attract teenagers. The mise en scene of the images are suited to the topic of the documentary in both cases. For example the teens in sport images are sporty images and all link with the documentary. In the special delivery article, the image has doctors in scrubs and a baby shown In the image. These images are also captioned in both, in ours it tells the audience what is shown in the image e.g a expert interview. In special delivery, the image is also captioned to suit the image and inform the reader of what it is.

Radio advert

I will be comparing our radio advert to Channel 4’s documentary advert for Non-sense.

Music

Our documentary uses music that is also used in our radio advert, this links our products together effectively. The music used is upbeat and effective as it will attract the target audience. Also, from audience feedback we know that they liked the music and for some, it is what makes them want to watch the documentary after hearing the advert. Channel 4’s Non-sense also uses catchy music, it is very upbeat and will attract their target audience. I am unaware if the music used was also used in their documentary as I have not seen it but the tempo of it makes me want to watch the documentary. By using a similar sort of music style, I know that I have followed a convention of a real life media product, therefore making my product sound realistic and effective.

Soundbites

Soundbites were used in the middle of our radio advert. They introduced experts into our advert so that the listener would be able to trust their judgment and hear the preffered reading of the documentary, it also gives them an idea about what the documentary is about by talking about teenagers and the health benefits that sports gives them. Initially, we had planned to use them at the start, but due to mediation and keeping to 30 second limit, we decided to remove the start soundbites. These soundbites were a conversation between two teenager boys discussing playing football at the weekend, but one of them refused because he had to focus on his homework. This was mediated as it was slightly too in depth for our radio advert, but comparing our advert to a real life one, I realise perhaps it wouldn’t have been such a bad idea. Channel 4’s Non-sense documentary advert uses soundbites at the beginning to talk about locations in England. It sets the scene and makes the advert flow and not sound to abrupt at the beginning. This is a place where I have challenged the conventions of a real media product due to mediation, but have still used to convention in a different way.

Date/ time of airing

The date and time of airing are very important conventions of a radio advert as they tell the listener where and when to watch the documentary they are advertising. Without this, the audience will not know where to watch it and the advert would be pointless. In our radio advert we had to ensure that this was clear so they would know when to watch the documentary If the topic interested them. From audience feedback we know that they were aware of these things as they all knew where and when it would be aired after hearing the advert. These conventions are also used in the Non-sense radio advert which states when and when it will be shown on Channel 4. This shows us using a developing a real life media convention from a real product.

Voice over/narrator

Another convention that we used in our radio advert was a narrator. Or in our case, two narrators. We believe that this made the advert sound more interesting and less monotone. We ensured that the tone of voice was enthusiastic and what was said was short and snappy in order to appeal to the target audience. The narrators also added in extra details that the audience needed to know for example when and where it would be aired, and the general point of the documentary being teenagers and their balance of sport and school. A narrator is also used in Non-sense advert to portray the same sort of information such as time and place of airing and the point of the documentary. These things are important to inform the reader of what they should expect to watch on the documentary and if it will appeal to them. This also shows where we have used real life media conventions in our products.