This document discusses how a student media project used and challenged documentary conventions in creating a 5-minute documentary about sandwiches. It conformed to conventions such as using an intriguing opening sequence, interviews with experts, narration to guide the viewer, and cutaways to keep the audience engaged. However, it also challenged conventions by using a song with lyrics rather than an instrumental for the background music. The documentary was created to a professional standard while also experimenting with conventions.
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1. Q1, IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Our task: In our Advanced year of media we were arranged
into groups and to plan, shoot and create a Five minute
documentary on a topic of our choice. We also had ancillary
tasks such as creating a 30 second Radio advert and also
creating a newspaper advert to promote our documentary. In
order to make our documentary to a professional standard,
but at times we also broke away and challenged these codes
and conventions. In the next few slides I will show how we've
stuck with these conventions but also challenged them at the
same time.
2. The opening sequence:
Our opening documentary
served the purpose of
introducing the topic, in our
case sandwiches. It conforms
to real media as it introduces
the topic in a really intriguing
as we did it in the form of stop
motion. The whole of the
opening sequence is
accompanied by rule Britannia
this re-enforces the british
theme of our documentary.
THE DOCUMENTARY
3. Introduction:
The purpose of our
introduction is to give the
audience a deeper insight
into what our documentary
is about and what areas it
will cover. it involved a
montage of clips related to
sandwiches while a
voiceover gave information
on sandwiches and
rhetorical questions to keep
the audience thinking. This
entertains the audience
while giving them
information at the same
time.
THE DOCUMENTARY
4. The interviews
Our interviews were a key
element within our documentary
as it was the link between topics.
Mise en scene is used in all of
our interviews, behind the
interviewee there is a sandwich
related image. Green screens are
also used in a few interviews.
This intrigued the audience it
was different. We also
interviewed experts related to
sandwiches such as the manager
of our local subway. This is a
really important convention as
the information that the expert
gives is more likely to be taken
on by the audience as it is
coming from someone who is
specialized in that field. The rule
of thirds is used within each
interview this strongly conforms
to real media.
THE DOCUMENTARY
5. Narration
Dotted throughout our
documentary is a voice over
the voice over conforms to
typical conventions of a
documentary. It is similar to
the voice over in The Devil
Made Me Do It documentary.
It provided structure to the
documentary and guides the
viewer through the
information given in the
documentary.
THE DOCUMENTARY
6. Sound
Non diegetic sound in
documentaries often comes
through the form of
background music. We used
the sandwich song as it
related to our topic. This
challenged conventions as it
had lyrics in were as in real
media documentaries they
would usually use an
instrumental song. Diegetic
sound comes from
interviews, cut aways and
voxpops.
THE DOCUMENTARY
7. Cut Aways
Cut aways are another
crucially key element within
documentaries. It gives the
audience good clear visuals. It
keeps them involved and it
keeps the documentary
flowing smoothly. Different
shots are used too keep the
cutaways interesting
Point of view shots: This
keeps the audience involved
as they feel a part of the
documentary.
Panning Shots: These shots
help viewers to get a better
view of the scene which adds
interest.
Close ups: adds focus to
certain aspects of the shots.
THE DOCUMENTARY