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

conventions of real media products?

Our documentary is mixed, this is because it contains a series of interviews and cutaways for observation, it also includes archive footage for analytical views and a voice-over (the narrator) this anchors the documentary and guides the audience as it is in this documentary, informs the viewers on what the benefits are with healthy food.

We chose to set our type of documentary on a mixed because it seemed the most interesting out of all the types of documentaries we studied in our studies on ‘Types of Documentaries’. We compared our documentary to professional documentaries that we analysed in our previous studies at the start of the course and it follows a lot of the codes and conventions of a professional documentary, the only things that didn’t was the when we didn’t have the name and job title on the opposite side of the interviewee.

Documentary

Each documentary has it’s own distinctive content that is clear as to what it features. In our documentary it features themes that are based on our original documentary idea these include: Overall healthy eating, vegetarianism, reasons for obesity, the benefits of healthy food and solutions to becoming healthier. It has a single stranded narrative that is constructed around a specific topic, that is healthy and unhealthy eating and things that surround it, for example; the supermarket industries all rivalling against each other with foods and prices.

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DocumentaryHere we have followed the codes and conventions of real media products and included the name and job description of one of the people we interviewed in the documentary we filmed and edited. We have positioned it at the bottom right hand corner, however it is not completely accurate with the codes and conventions with positioning it aside from the interviewee because the colour of the font would blend in with the interviewees clothes, so we positioned it over the interviewee because we felt it was still visible.

Like in a professional documentary, with the interviews the name of the interviewee is a different size compared to the job title. We have followed this in our own documentary because it complies with the codes and conventions of a documentary.

DocumentaryThe Mise-en scene of a documentary use the codes and conventions because of the background being in match with the interviewees clothes, this is to link the scene with the theme of the documentary. This is a pretty important point to follow from the codes and conventions because it anchors the meaning behind as to what is being said along with the role of the interviewee in the documentary; For example ‘The gun that aims itself’ signifies that the interviewee is involved in the creating and making of the gun that has a self locating sight that makes sure the bullet never misses its target.

Cutaways- These are used to break up the interviews and fill in gaps and possible jumps cuts, they can show the audience other part of what the documentary is about, if the cutaway has a voiceover over it explaining either fact that are relevant to the cutaway or perhaps showing a clip that has evidence in it which can inform the audience of something they may not know.

Editing the documentary also follows the codes and conventions of real media products such as adding a slow motion effect onto something to build up the tension which would make the audiences emotions fluctuate such as either adrenaline, sadness, shock or realisation. It helps keep the continuity of the documentary and to keep the audiences focus in check.

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DocumentaryLike in the professional documentaries we have watched we used creative camera work that used media techniques such as panning the camera left or right to show the full picture frame because it wouldn't all fit in a still clip. Also zooming in or out depending on the clip to turn it into something fun to view instead of a boring still shot.

We also used the rule of third when it came to our interviews because it was easier to line it up so we were able to follow the codes and conventions correctly.

In the codes and conventions the voiceover is a standard English narrator that speaks over clips of archive footage to make them more interesting and to inform the audience about what is either happening in the clip(s) or to inform the audience about something that is relevant to the topic within the clips. We have used a woman for our voiceover, it wasn’t really an issue whether we used a male or female for our voiceover because the theme of the documentary was a unisex theme.

We used a music bed at the start of our opening title sequence, however it is not a lyrical song, this being because we wanted our documentary to be a formal one with no lyrics and a steady beat. We also added in a heartbeat flat lining because it built that dramatic effect.

We also included the voiceover over archive footage that was placed in the documentary. This is to anchor the documentary by either explaining what is going on in the documentary, or to talk about relevant topics while the clips are being played.

Documentary