“ IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE

MEDIA CONVENTIONS?”

Evaluation, Question 1 (DOCUMENTARY)

TITLE SCREEN

We opted for a title screen which was handwritten on a whiteboard as opposed to text put in place post-production because I personally thought it would set our documentary apart from other products more if some conventions were challenged. Also this fits in which the general mood of the documentary, which has a subconscious focus on school life – this title screen in particular reflects that, and so it is best that our audience sees that as soon as possible in the documentary.

OPENING SEQUENCE

Our opening sequence is full of images of people using their phones, as well as a stopmotion sequence in which a pile of mobile phones apear one by one. We thought this was an interesting idea for a shot, and our opening sequence features narration over all of this onscreen action to guide the audience on where the documentary will go and what they will perhaps learn during the film. This is a crucial convention we chose to stick to for the reasoning that the audience will know whether they want to watch it at this point in the documentary.

CAPTIONS

At various stages of the documentary, we used captions to notify the audience of who was speaking, most noticeably during expert interviews with Nick Waring and Matt Clarke, as well as Siobhan’s video diaries. This was an important documentary convention to feature in our documentary because it is important for the audience to know that the facts and opinions they are getting from the experts are from a valid and informed place – their occupation was put on a accompanying caption underneath to notify the audience of what they were talking about was relevant to them, in Siobhan’s case that her phone was a crucial part of her day-to-day life as a student for communication.

MISE-EN-SCENE

For The expert interviews mostparticularly we felt it was necessary for there to be a subconscious air of understanding of the area they are talking about in their shots, just like Morgan Spurlock does in “Supersize Me”. As a result, we took this convention and placed our expert interviewees in locations which they might be seen in day-to-day, or with things in the background relevant to the topic they are discussing, just as market leader Matt Clarke does when he sits with a Mac computer behind. This was crucial for the audience to know the expert was inform, as stated before.

BACKGROUND FOOTAGE

Our background footage was mainly of students on their phone, as this was highly relevant to our topic area and our target audience.This was the best option for our background footage as a result. This is a strong convention to follow as it gives something else for the audience to watch and keeps their focus on the documentary, and can often reinforce the point a filmmaker is trying to drive home if used correctly.

CUTAWAYS

Similarly, we often used cutaways during the expert interviews particularly, to drive home the point we were trying to make in our documentary. This is a convention which many filmmakers employ in order to subtly give the audience a certain impression of a social issue and as a result may influence their opinion of the documentary, causing them to agree with it often.

ZOOM USAGE

With background footage in most documentaries such as “Most Evil”, a still camera is often used. We decided to forgo this particular media convention and added some zooms and pans into our background footage to spice up the action a bit and again reinforce our points we are conveying in the documentary.

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE

Archival footage is very useful to use as a documentarymaker, and many do so – it is a convention often used to drive home a point with historical evidence, or as a drawing point for a comparison to be made through a voiceover. We followed this convention, particularly in our opening sequence to describe “just how far” mobile phones have developed over time.

SOUND

Our voiceover guides the whole documentary and was a crucial aspect of the production process. It is important therefore that we tried to follow the conventions of voiceovers, being seen as a knowledgeable presence to guide the audience through the documentary.

The music we used in the documentary, we tried to make a conscious attempt to have it fit in with the theme and tone of the documentary, but we feel we could have used better music upon reflection, especially seeing as the convention is to do this. We realised why this is a convention, as the music is mean to subtly create meaning, whereas in our documentary it sticks out like a sore thumb almost, as explained in our audience feedback. This was a convention we should have used and followed more closely.

TO CONCLUDE

There were various media conventions we decided to both develop and use as well as others which we decided to challenge in order for our documentary to feel as if it were set out apart from other similar documentaries which could be compared to it.