1. In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

Lower ThirdOne of the main key conventions of a documentary is the lower third title, to identify whom is being interviewed we made sure to use these,

however we developed it slightly to fit our theme of social networking.

Within Channel 4s popular documentary, Educating Yorkshire, a simple lower third title was used with a basic white font,presenting their name, and what year or profession they were in. This was always on the opposite side to interviewees head so it could be clearly read.

Within our documentary, we followed the same rule of keeping the lower third title to the opposite side of the interviewee, however, we mixed up our text, giving it a ‘twitter box’ graphics background, developing this typical convention made it seem more inventive and eye catching, and kept with the theme of our documentary.

Rule of thirds In general, we kept to the conventions of the rule of thirds shot, keeping the interviewee to either the left of right of the frame and chose not to develop this, as then it would push the boundaries of the documentary conventions

Another successful channel 4 documentary, ‘Sexting Teacher’ kept to the usual conventions of the rule of thirds, keeping the interviewee to the left or right of the frame, with a medium close up. Including the subtitles with the name of the person being interviewed.

Within our documentary we also kept this usual convention. Likewise to Sexting Teacher, we had the interviewee in either the left or right of the frame. However occasionally we switched from medium close up, to medium shot, to add variation and add a more mixed feel

Mise En Scene The mise en scene for a documentary is a key convention to express the topic of the documentary at every angle. This is paticuarly important during interviews so the documentary flows correctly.

Within Educating Yorkshire, a green screen was used to create a whiteboard within the background of every interview, this linked to the school theme of the documentary, giving it a class room feel which associated with the topic the documentary was presenting.

Within our piece we made sure to keep the theme of social networking apparent. In comparison to Educating Yorkshire, we had a range of different mise en scene for each interview, all featuring a computer or a item that linked to social networking, which can also be common in most documentaries. Within this documentary, we also added a bedroom feel as the interview was disussing how social networking effected home life.

NarratorWithin mixed documentaries, it is common that a narrator is used to connect all individual interviews together to allow the audience to have a better understanding, most mixed documentaries keep it to one narrator, whom was never seen, only heard, fitting the ‘voice of god’ convention.

There are a selection of professional documentaries that follow the ‘voice of god’ narrator. On Channel 4 there are ones such as Educating Yorkshire, One born every minute, Sexting Teacher and Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Its not just channel 4 that keep to this typical convention, other documentaries on other broadband such as Births, Deaths and Marriages on ITV also has this same ‘voice of god’ approach

Likewise in our documentary we kept to this approach where our narrator was only heard and never seen. This kept the documentary within the ‘mixed’ feel and applying this convention made it appear more professional and realistic. However we did use a younger, more relatable narrator as our documentary is aimed at teens.

ChromakeyChromatery is not the most typical convention of a documentary, however it is often used through many to create more graphics and give it a more eye catching effect

Within the ‘That Thing – Lara Croft’ documentary a large collection of chormatery was used to display the game being played behind the head of a interviewee, and often this piece of the game related to the topic of discussion.

We however, went against this typical convention for modern day documentaries, as we felt that the use of screen caps would be more beneficial. Instead of having the use of a green screen, we kept to producing our own backgrounds. Challenging this convention gave the documentary a more realistic feel, and drew more attention to the interview and linear story of the documentary, rather than the graphics.