PAIGE COLES

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms of real media products?

Interviews

Super-size me My Documentary

In my documentary, we very much followed the codes and conventions of a professional interview, as shown in the ‘Super-size me’ example. On of the ways we were influenced by the appearance of this interview was the way the professional was introduced. In supersize me, the interviewee was given a title which included the name of the person and their profession in the field. Similarly, we mirrored this in our documentary by giving the name of the interviewee followed by their job title. Also, the positioning of the text is down to the left-hand side of the shot so it is made more clear. In the real documentary example, the interviewee is positioned on the right of the shot, looking over to the left side. We used the same technique in out documentary to make it come across as professional. However, I believe that we challenged the specific camera position of this shot as the camera is positioned as a close-up in Supersize me. We used a medium close up shot in our documentary to show more of the setting we had positioned out professional in. In our example documentary, the interviewee talks freely about the subject as does out professional in out interviewee. Therefore, we challenged the codes and conventions of other documentaries by not having questions and answers in the interview.

Voice over

In similar documentaries to my own (e.g Video Game Invasion) there are on screen narrators. In video game invasion, the on screen presenter is Tony Hawk, a professional skate boarder and game enthusiast. We decided to go against this code and convention and just used a voice over in our creation. In most documentaries aimed at out specific audience, there is usually an on screen presenter. We challenged the usual code and convention to stand out from the other documentaries. The voiceover in this documentary is over the music on the shots. This makes the documentary flow better. We were influenced by this feature and used the technique in our own documentary. I believe we challenged the codes and conventions of ‘Video game invasion’ as our voiceover starts after the title sequence. However, in their documentary, the voiceover starts as soon as the documentary begins. We chose to do ours this way as we used footage and loud, dramatic music to build suspense and draw the audience in.

Fact and Figures

My Documentary Super-size me

In super-size me, as the narrator is speaking, he gives important facts relating to the topic of the documentary. They also sometimes appear on the screen to make a bigger impact on the viewer. In my documentary, I follow this technique by displaying the facts and figures, and at the same time, having the narrator read them out. This is effective and the viewer receives the information visually and via auditory. The facts and figures are places on top of relevant stock footage. For example, in the super-size me print screen, you can see that the stock footage is relevant to the topic as it’s a shot of an over weight family. Similarly, we have recreated this in out own creation by putting the figures on top of a shot of the shop ‘Game’ as this is a main seller of the violent video games.

Vox pops

Vox pops are an important dimension of documentaries as it is a representation of the general public’s view on the topic. In the super-size me documentary, a lot of vox pops are included to gain views of the topic. A lot of the vox pops seem to be conducted in the same environment. In the example documentary, the vox pops take place in the street, where all the popular fast foods joints are located. In our documentary, we visited a college who’s students’ ages range from 16-18 years. Therefore, the information we gathered is relatable to the target audience.

My Documentary Super- Size me

Title Sequence

As a team, we believe that our title sequence challenged codes + conventions of other documentaries’ titles. This is due to the fact that we have never seen a title sequence like this before and it was created completely from scratch. Also, the hidden message in our title sequence makes it unique. Scrabble is an old game, played way before the technologies of video games appeared. By using the scrabble pieces for the title sequence, we are contrasting the old, more peaceful games, with the new high tech and violent games. We chose to do this to be different and stand out from other similar documentaries.

Home Video

In our documentary, we decided to use a ‘home video’ technique. We used this because it was relevant to the topic we addressed. It showed a gamer playing a violent video game and how he confessed it made him ‘angry’ by playing it. We didn’t come across any home videos in similar documentaries. However, on ‘super-size me’, the whole documentary revolves around the fact it is a home video. We used this technique as it made out documentary unique and different from other similar documentaries.

Radio trailer

Followed codes + conventions:Voice over:we used a voice over in our radio trailer to give further information on the documentary, mainly of when it’s on and the title of the program. Music: The music of the documentary is dramatic and attention grabbing. This is similar to other radio trailers and the music needs to be the music needs to be the music attention grabbing as there is no visual information. Time/Date it will be aired: The time and date the documentary will be aired is always included on a radio trailer. The viewer then knows exactly when they can watch the program of the radio trailer they have just listened to, to gain more information on the topic.Documentary length: The average length of a radio trailer is around 3o seconds long. This is the length of our documentary. We have chosen to follow this code and convention as we want the radio trailer to be accepted by the specific radio station we would want to air it on and not take up too much time of their advertising space. There is a higher chance of us getting a slot if it is shorter.

Challenged codes + conventions: Abstract introduction: The opening scene of our documentary is very abstract and nothing like any other opening scene we have come across. We challenged the usually codes and conventions of the start of a radio trailer as we believed it would add difference to our trailer and there fore make it stand out from other trailers being aired around the same time as ours.

Magazine DPS

Followed codes + conventions: Article: The article is all about how the producers (us) investigated the issue of violent video games and who we interviewed and why. This follows codes and conventions of other advertising DPS’s as most of them give the reader the same type of information about the documentary. We chose to follow this as we found that, by telling the reader why we went on this ‘quest’ and who we interviewed about it, it would encourage the reader to watch the documentary. Large image:The large image used on the dps is a main code and convention of many magazine articles. It is the feature which draws the viewer into the article. The main image in our DPS is of a character from ‘GTA 5’. The teenagers who have played this game will then recognise this image and want to read about why this image is placed to largely in the magazine. Images from the Documentary:Most of the images used on the documentary are ones screen-shot from our documentary. This technique is used in many documentaries’ DPS articles as it gives a sneak peak into what has been filmed on the documentary.