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‘Underage Binge Drinking’ Evaluation

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

The Documentary:

Once given the task to create the opening 5 minutes of an hour long documentary, alongside a radio trail and double page spread in a listings magazine to support it, we discussed topics which we could base our documentary on. We researched different genres of documentaries that we could include, along with any recent situations in the news, as well as facts and figures which would become a useful to the documentary opening. We concluded with basing the documentary on ‘Underage Binge Drinking’, as it was a neglected problem in the UK which was highly increasing.

We researched what is needed to create a documentary further, looking at different categories: optimistic, pessimistic, serious, ironic etc. As well as the conventions: voiceover (the commentary/ narrator), actuality (filming real life events, places, people), expositions (theme is revealed in the start), reconstructions (to reconstruct an event/ act it out) and archival footage (secondary or stock footage). In our documentary, it has many serious yet optimistic aspects, as it sets the tone for our target audience, allowing them to know what type of documentary they are viewing.

We began looking at different types and styles of documentaries which support Bill Nichols theories of Documentary Modes (2001). Documentary modes are a kind of conceptual scheme, similar to genres. Six of which were very important to Nichols: Poetic- artistic and creative/ soviet montage theory at the start, Expository- way to expose the social problem, persuading the viewer on a viewpoint through an omniscient narrator and cutaways to illustrate points further, Reflexive- demystifying the art of making the documentary, Observational- way to observe people in everyday life- usually done by a ‘fly on the wall’ style, Participatory- when the film maker appears as subjects in their own work and Performative- the maker of the documentary is the subject of the film/programme, making it autobiographical.

In order for our documentary to follow the conventions of a real media product, we watched a variety of documentaries that were aired on well-known channels such as: Channel 4, BBC and ITV1. The documentary ‘Supersize Me’ (2004) is an excellent example portraying both performative and participatory modes, as Morgan Spurlock (the presenter) makes himself the subject to the programme, by carrying out an investigation they call a ‘McDiet’, to

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portray his argument to the audience of obesity in America. As well as this, a lot of hand held camera is used which creates actuality and an autobiographical style to the production, which makes it more personal for the audience.Instead of this, we use a voiceover in our documentary, an omniscient narrator, a narrative structure. We have done this as it persuades our argument across to the audience by repetition, and more suitable for our documentary on ‘Underage Binge Drinking’.

This is similar to ITV1’s documentary ‘Fire and Rescue’ (2003), which seemed to be an educational, investigative type of documentary, profiling fire-fighters and their work. They utilised a particular narrator- Allister Stuart, a news reader. By using a news reader’s voice as the voiceover, it creates a more serious tone which is very factual, more believable and appropriate for the target audience.

Furthermore, as our documentary is on ‘Underage Binge Drinking’, we decided that it would be an investigative, informative and expository documentary, however consisting of an ‘enigmatic code’ structure, as the investigation of the causes and effects of underage binge drinking cannot be solved- likewise to ‘supersize me’.

From watching other documentaries, we analysed the features and ideas and thought of how we could incorporate them into our own documentary. Many of these conventions were used through camera. Involving many different types of shots and angles such as: establishing shots, medium close-ups, long shots, extreme close-ups, high angle, low angle etc. Many of our shots are done by using a Tripod, so then the picture is both steady and level and also enabling us to pan the camera while filming an establishing shot to make it more professional. We used this in our establishing shots of the college, the college canteen and of Touchwood high street.

Camera: Tripod:

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One particular feature would be the montage used at the start of the documentary, as it was similar to a real media product. This exposes the theme and subject of the documentary as well as making it more dramatic for the viewer. Another would be medium close-ups, which we used a lot in the expert interviews for our documentary, so then we can see the persons reactions and expressions- like ‘supersize me’ has done. We have used ‘rule of thirds’- having the interviewee looking into an empty space and a third of the way in on the screen- this is to ensure that there is no ‘dead space’ behind the interviewee, so the viewer will have their eyes on the expert. However, still portraying to the viewer the expert interviewees’ work surroundings- similar to an expert interview in ‘supersize me’:

Furthermore, we also incorporated the idea from ‘supersize me’ of using a low angle medium shot. This shot had to be very precise in order to achieve the appropriate mis-en-scene and focus of the bottles- ensuring that they would not look blurry- and pulling some focus from the background to make the bottles stand out more- as they have done so in ‘supersize me’:

Our Documentary: ‘Supersize me’ Documentary:

‘Supersize me’ Documentary:Our Documentary:

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We also ensured that the bottles were in size order, to portray the units, like it has done so in ‘supersize me’ when conveying what the size portions for drinks are. This makes it more effective as the viewer will realise the shocking differences in unit size of alcohol.

Another convention our media project uses is through sound. In particular, our documentary use a variety of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, along with a presenter, background music and a voiceover. ‘Supersize me’ uses both a presenter and a voiceover, which is done effectively as it involves the audience in the whole investigation of the documentary, therefore making it more personal for the viewer- both performative and expository in Bill Nichol’s documentary codes. As our documentary was more informative than investigative, we decided to only include a voiceover and no presenter, as it would have been more appropriate for the topic and theme of the documentary. A voiceover was also only used in both ‘Fire and Rescue’ (ITV1) and ‘A Good Smack’ (BBC) to narrate to the viewers what is going on, as well as the cause and effects of these situations.

Background music we had made using the software ‘Garage Band’, where we created instrumental sounds to fit the theme and make it parallel to the scenes of our documentary. In all the documentaries we researched and studied used background music. However, a majority of the music was copyrighted from bands and song artists.In ‘A Good Smack’, a lot of chaotic music is played when portraying the misbehaving children, the choice of band was ‘Madness’, and the song choice did not overpower the recording of the misbehaving children. In ‘Fire and Rescue’, the music was parallel to the scenes, which does grab the viewers’ attention however, the music was over the top and over powering of the clips which made the extract look not as professional as it could have. The background music which we created on Garage Band was not overpowering the voiceover or the clips and was not over the top in the scenes we utilised it in. The music was appropriate and parallel to the scene as it was simple beats; however the sound levels were a bit sketchy as it went back and forth from high to low therefore slightly overpowering the voiceover at certain points. This is something that would be improved in our documentary.

This is part of the voiceover script introducing Neil Attewell, which we had made using a microphone recorder, headphones and editing in final cut express

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In order to support our documentary on ‘underage binge drinking’, we needed to acquire a fair amount of reliable research which was relevant to the topic. This is to inform our audience about the rising statistics facts and figures of the topic, to educate them that underage binge drinking is an increasing problem in the UK, as well as educating them on various causes and effects of young teens binge drinking. In order to get the correct statistics we produced questionnaires which we handed out to students in our sixth form college. We also researched the BBC News on the internet to find any articles or news mentions on underage binge drinking- hoping to use it as a case study for the documentary, similar to ‘supersize me’ in their case study of the two girls who attempted to sue McDonalds.

Background music track was exported from Garage Band and imported into Final cut express

Case Studies (‘Supersize me’)

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Special effects are also utilised in the conventions of real media products. One in particular which we have used is speeding up the clip whilst the voiceover is explaining statistic facts about underage binge drinking. We blurred the image as well as speeding up the clip, later crowding it with images of alcohol bottles and cans. As the clip was not long enough to cover the voiceover, we challenged the conventions of real media products and reversed the clip- still quick paced- to make the clip cover the voiceover. This had successfully worked as it was not noticeable to the viewer that it had been reversed.

The Magazine Article:

Our Documentary:‘Supersize me’ Documentary:

We have displayed percentages similarly to how ‘supersize me’ has done. This technique is effective to the viewer as can clearly see the abnormally high or rising figures. By blurring out a

previously used image as the background fits well and appropriately into the scene.

Here the clip has been speeded up, and pulled out of focus.

During this part of the clip, the video has been reversed, while out of focus and is speeded up

This is how we changed both the speed and how we reversed the clip to make it last longer (tick the ‘reverse’ box)

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This is our magazine article which we had designed and produced for ‘More’ magazine. We had researched a number of magazines to see how they used the conventions to make the article more effective. Considering that our documentary was targeted for a younger audience, we decided to keep the layout simple and to a colour scheme of red, black and white.

Double-Page Spread articles from ‘More’ Magazine:

Both of these double- page spreads consist of colour schemes, main (powerful) image; grab quotes, columns and captions etc. These are some of the conventions we had incorporated into our magazine article. We had also used still images from our documentary, one of which conveys the intended target audience.

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Some conventions we used on our article:

These are the still images that we used in our magazine article as we thought they were effective and portrayed our documentary well as it gives an insight to the reader on what is included in our documentary:

I would definitely re-do the grab quotes in the article, as the text box outline is shown in the

page. As well as this, I would also include captions underneath the images to explain what is going on the image, this can also make the documentary seem more appealing to the reader.

Included the date, time and channel the documentary would be showing on

Inserted page numbers, used martini glasses to emphasise the topic of our documentary

Inserted a website in which the reader could find out more on our documentary

We set the article in columns and wrapped the text around the grab quotes (which are important quotes said in the documentary)

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The Radio Trail:

In order to have an idea on what the conventions were on a radio trail, we had listened to a variety of professional radio trails from stations such as ‘Capital FM’ and ‘BBC Radio’. We had also filled in sheets to analyse other radio trails for documentaries which involved analysing the voiceover, music, tone and other conventions of a radio trail. Furthermore, we had also practiced making a radio trail, however using secondary background music, earlier in the year so we had an idea on how to create and put together a radio trail on ‘GarageBand’.

Our radio trail was produced for ‘BBC Radio One’, as they have a wide variety of our target audience; therefore we needed to make our radio trail appealing and upbeat for the young listeners, however still considering that our documentary consisted of a serious topic.

We used extracts from our documentary which were effective and powerful quotes- from both adults and students- quotes such as ‘…alcohol would be a sludge hammer’ and ‘13 year olds would be vulnerable…’

The background music we had made using ‘GarageBand’, we had to make sure that the music did not overpower the voiceover script, we had done this by altering the sound levels of both the voiceover and the background music:

The background music is also upbeat however serious in tone, this supported the quotes and created a theme in the radio trail. As well as this, we included the date, time and channel as a finish to the radio trail which created an effective ending as that important information would stick to the listeners mind, intended to increase the views of our documentary.

Our radio trail was approximately 40 seconds; this gave us enough time to include powerful quotes, important rhetorical questions (used to include the listener) and more information which almost summarised the topic of our documentary.

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Overall, we have stuck to the main conventions used in a documentary, article and radio trail in order to make our product and ancillary texts appeal to the target audience. We have also challenged the conventions through the transitions.