GENRE CONVENTIONS

PRODUCTION

We have followed the traditional conventions of a documentary due to the fact that our media product, Backstage, is informative.

Our documentary is informative through the words of the industry professionals, making our documentary subjective. This is as what is being stated isn't fact . Our documentary is informative as oppose to factual, a convention of many documentaries, however, due to the fact that we didn’t adhere to the convention of a documentary using statistics. As our documentary is both informative and entertaining, we have followed Sir John Reith’s reithian ideology to an extent. We have also conformed to this ideology by ensuring that the content that we produced wasn’t influenced by the aim of gaining mass market appeal.

By ensuring that our production was entertaining through the cut aways and inspirational and upbeat music, we have adhered to the convention of modern documentaries not being entirely educational and being entertaining. We also feel that, as we expected, our short documentary is entertaining as most of our interviewees were enthusiastic due to the careers that they have, having been in the past, or currently being, involved with acting and theatre.

The modern convention of short documentaries being entertaining is usually due to institutions aiming to gain mass market appeal, this is typically conglomerates aiming to profit. We however as an independent institution, like previously stated, weren’t creating an entertaining product to gain mass market appeal, this is especially as our content is niche anyway. Through having an entertainment value in our documentary however, we have created opportunity to possibly widen our audience.

I also feel that we have adhered to the convention of having an entertainment value within our product in order for it to appeal to a young target audience. This is as the entertainment provided within our short documentary will make it appeal more to our audience, who, unconventionally of the usual target audience for documentaries, are 18-25 year olds. This is because it will present an insight to the industry in a more engaging way to them, this is particularly through the cut aways as due to our audience having an interest in the creative arts it is highly likely for them to be visual people.

One of the devices stereotypically used within documentaries in order for the audience to have an emotional connection with the product is close ups, we haven't however, conformed to this stereotype in our production. This is as, although we have close ups in the cut aways, for example of Isobel Knights ballet shoes, of hands playing the piano and of makeup, I feel none of these shots would create an emotional connection for audience with our product and we don’t have any close ups of the interviewees. These close ups do however make our production more cinematic.

As I feel that the shots we used worked effectively, if close ups of the interviewees didn’t work, I feel that close up, out of focus cutaways of our interviewees may work, in order to create an emotional connection for the audience, to our product, due to a sense of intimacy they would subconsciously feel. I feel that this would be due to the fact that the audience would be made aware of smaller individual aspects of the interviewees, for example we could have a shot of Johns glasses and eyes. Overall, I feel this would result in our audience feeling more intimate with our interviewees as they have been drawn to specific, individual characteristics and aspects of them.

I therefore feel that despite the fact that the inspirational aspect of our documentary will help to create an emotional connection for the audience, as well as the fact that our subject matter provokes passion in the words of the interviewees, I feel that we should have incorporated more close ups of our interviewees.

I also feel that close ups of the people used in the middle section of our production, for our cutaways, for example Isobel as she dances, could enable the audience to be more emotionally attached to our product.

We didn’t adhere to the convention of arranging to meet up with our interviewees before we met to actually interview them. For Genesis Lynea and John Hewer this is due to the distance, with them living in London and with Ian Smith and Sarah Ingram, this is due to the difficulty we had in arranging to meet for the interview alone, due to them being so busy.

I feel that due to filming relatively long interviews, on average being 20 minutes each, we had enough content to be selective and to create a short documentary which had consistently good quality content throughout.

I also feel that not following this convention wasn’t an issue as all our interviewees appeared to be relaxed, as we talked to them and ensured they were comfortable whilst setting up, I also feel that due to them having all being involved with theatre, they were very confident and therefore had no issues or reservations because of the fact that they hadn’t met us before. I feel that part of the reason for the

interviewees being so conformable was due to us following the convention of having our interviewer, Caitlin, on the same level as them so that she therefore seemed low status and not intimidating. Once again, however, due to them being confident, and as we are younger than them, I believe this would have only subconsciously aided them.

Due to the fact that within the creative industry we have focused on theatre, including musical theatre, our audience are also likely to engage well will the inspiring music, composed by James Waymont.

I feel that we made the right decision in making our documentary informative yet entertaining as the entertainment value will appeal to our young primary audience yet the informative aspect will appeal to the fact that they are sophisticated and will fulfil the intellectual pleasures of our secondary audience. I feel that we conveyed enough entertainment through our chosen methods of using cutaways, inspirational music and time lapses.

The fact that we are an independent institution is conventional of producers of short documentaries, as is our low budget.

It is also typical for short documentaries to have a powerful message and although our topic isn’t hard-hitting, we feel that to an extent we have adhered to this convention through our subject matter of the hardships and rewards of the creative industry. This is as we feel there are various areas where the passion of the interviewees is evident and the inspiring music composed by James Waymont also reinforces our message, which is a positive view on the industry showing that the rewards are worth the perseverance. Another convention that we have followed is that I myself,and all the members of our group, as producers, have a strong interest in our subject matter.

We decided that we would use the expository mode in group A of documentary modes. We have adhered to the conventions of this mode due to the fact that we have created a realistic documentary but we have also portrayed a specific interpretation of reality, our opinion, as producers that the creative industry is worth the perseverance of the hardships in order to get the rewards. The mise-en-scene in several areas of our production reinstates the

subject matter which is conventional of the expository mode. This is evident for example with the chairs around John indicating he is in a theatre and the fact that Ian is in the theatre workshop although isn’t evident ,as the setting looks relatively worn, connoting work, it looks like he’s backstage. The audience are also likely to presume this due to his description on screen being producer/director and due to the obvious fact that he is talking about the industry

We have also reinstated the subject matter through the cutaways, for example of Isobel Knight dancing and of the Act One drama group. Through using the words of the interviews alone, we have adhered to the convention of expository documentaries having a ‘voice of God’ voiceover, this is as the words of the interviews speak directly to the audience. This is often used to connote power and we feel that, although our subject matter isn’t hard hitting or serious, this has enabled us to convey inspiration through our documentary further.

On revaluation I now realise the importance of ensuring that we provided our audience with a conclusion for our

documentary to a further extent than I did in the planning and research stages.

This is due to the fact that our primary audience are at the young ages of 18-25

and are in further education based on the creative arts and also because they are looking for a media product which will confirm that their ambition of working in the creative industry will be a rewarding

profession.

This shows that a key aspect in our media product appealing to them is it having a

conclusive ending.

The fact that our primary audience are also looking for safety in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs through media products, shows that they will be inspired by the documentary . This is due to the nature of jobs in creative fields and had we not had been conclusive with the ending then we may not have been able to be as inspirational. This is as we would’ve had to have stayed neutral through the way in which we constructed our representation through editing. This would have been so that the audience could therefore conclude our documentary themselves, based on their own interpretation.

I feel that due to our primary audience seeking safety in the hierarchy, by using the expository mode and having the ‘voice of god’ voiceover we have also minimised the uncertainty of the future, therefore helping them to feel security from the product. This is due to the fact that they will be more trusting in the information that they are receiving as they are hearing it first hand from the industry professionals as oppose to through a narrator voiceover.

I feel that one of the main ways in which we have created an effective conclusive ending is through having a piece composed specifically for our production by James Waymont. Through doing this we were enabled to have music which was upbeat, major and inspiring. We were also able to have music that incorporated the aspects, from several copyright songs we had looked at, which we felt conveyed the motivation message of our documentary very well. An example of this is us using the strings from Secrets by One Republic as inspiration for our ending composition. Having the ending music so that it gradually builds up from the inspirational words of the interviewees, for example Sarah saying ‘embrace it’ and John saying ‘you will overcome the rest’ , I feel also ensures we have a very clear and effective conclusive ending. This shows the importance of editing to ensure that the ending is positive and clearly portrays to the audience the representation that we want them to take away, that it is worth persevering through the hardships of the industry in order to experience the rewards

I feel that we have also created a effective conclusive ending through the three time lapses at the beginning, middle and end of our ending montage, with each one showing the theatre getting fuller. This is because in between each time-lapse there is shots in warm lighting, indicating the last minute preparation for a show, for example the medium long shot of the two technicians setting up. I feel that, due to it being evident a show/ performance is about to take place, this creates a very clear conclusive ending. This is as this is the rewarding part of the industry that the hardships of rehearsing amounts to. This therefore once again, very obviously and inspirationally, reinstates to our audience that it is worth persevering through the hardships in order to gain the rewards of the industry.

I feel that choosing to create an expository documentary was the right decision for us as it has enabled us to ensure that the audience feel guided and satisfied that that ending has a conclusion. This will therefore enable our primary audience to feel safety from Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as they desire, as they will feel confident in perusing a creative career. The positive message of the industry was conveyed in our documentary mainly due to the way in which we edited our production to ensure we started with the hardships and finished with the rewards and the way in which we ended our documentary with inspirational and upbeat music and an inspirational montage. I feel that we did this effectively although I feel we should have explored more options to create a stronger enigma in our production, for example a different narrative structure to Todorov’s equilibrium which is what we used.