Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions

of real media products?

The documentary that we have produced follows the codes and conventions of real media products in the way that the sound, mise en scene and the camerawork follow the typical conventions. We did this so that our documentary looks as professional as it can. DOCUMENTARY

When we conducted our interviews we considered the mise en scene, like you a real media product would. When we filmed our vox pops of the audience members, we went to the supermarket “Morrison’s” and we recorded them down the Dental Hygiene aisle. By asking these questions about teeth and the type of toothpaste they use, by recording them in a convenient and relevant place then makes the documentary look more professional because the background has been considered.

When filming the interviews we made sure that we followed the conventional features of a documentary by positioning them on the left or right hand side of the screen.

Following another convention of having graphics on the interviews, this then lets the audience know who they are and what their role is within this documentary. This is conventional so we followed this closely. As well the mise en scene is very relevant to the topic because the things in the background such as the chair she is sat on. These things make it more relevant and conventional. The clothing that she is wearing as well is relevant because it is the type of clothing /uniform that you would have to wear when working in a dentist. This again makes it look a lot more professional.

The voiceover within the documentary anchored the meaning of what was on the screen. This was mainly during cutaways, the “voice of god” voiceover helped the audience learn new things because of the use of the different statistic and information. By using a voiceover and it being based on factual information we followed the code and conventions closely.

The cutaways that we did are also relevant to the topic. For example the cutaway of the interdental whitening products, this is very relevant as some parts of the documentary are specifically about teeth whitening.

The title of the documentary is relevant to the documentary content because it is like “Truth Revealed” so with the idea of revealing the truth it makes it relevant, which again is a convention.

PRINT ADVERT

When creating the print advert we followed the codes and conventions of typical Channel 4 adverts closely, however in some aspects we challenged them.

With the use of the bold title, which we used a white font like the titles on the real media products with the black boxes behind them to make the advert recognisable as a C4 advert. Because when you see channel 4 adverts you tend to recognise them from the features on the page. However as the font isn’t very much like the real Channel 4 font, but it is clear and bold like it.

Again we followed the codes and conventions of typical Channel 4 Documentaries by putting the channel 4 logo on the right hand side of the page in the middle. The colour which the logo tends to be is black however on some they can be a different colour. We placed it in the same place again to make it recognisable to our audience.

Typically there is only one main image on a Channel 4 advert which is striking and gives the audience an insight to what the programme is on. However, it is clear from the image what the documentary is about even though there are different pictures within the tooth.

The text that is usually on the advert is the scheduling information and there is usually a slogan which links to the content of the documentary. We have followed these conventions closely by having our Slogan, which is also on the radio advert, on the advert to again make it recognisable and perhaps interest.

RADIO ADVERT

In our Radio Advert we followed the codes and convention’s closely as we aimed to make it look as professional as we could. The first convention that we followed was the length of the advert Is typically 30 seconds long and there is the use of the music bed throughout the advert. Typically the music tends to be lively and upbeat. We used the instrumental version of Happy – Pharrell Williams which is overall a catchy and upbeat song which is memorable to the documentary. However we kept the music in the background quite low so that you could still hear it but you could hear the content of the advert clearer. Typically, the voiceover tends to be a women however in our documentary we have challenged this convention and had a male speaker. We chose to have a male speaker because we thought that as there are women throughout the documentary in the interviews a male voiceover would sound better and more authoritive. The mode of address is typically directly at the audience, and we have followed this convention through the use of the slogan “Brace yourselves for the chatter” and the way that ‘the voice of god’ is talking directly to the audience.

Overall, when creating all three media products we followed all of the codes and conventions that were required to make each individual product look professional and easy to recognise as the product that they are.