1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of real media products?
My chosen genre for my media product was documentary. I chose to do a documentary because I have never made one before and I frequently watch them so I knew the basics of a documentary. Genre is a French term that means ‘type’. There are two main reasons for genres in media. One is for easy classification, and the other is for audience sign posting. Every documentary is different; however most follow the same codes and conventions as the rest for the audience to acknowledge that it is a documentary and not a movie or simple TV programme. The only documentaries that will stray from the codes and conventions and challenge them will be mock-documentaries, which basically are a mocking alternative to the usual documentary for example Borat. The codes and conventions of a documentary that many documentaries stick to and use are narration. In most documentaries there is always a narrator or voice over to tell the story and inform the audience of what is going on, or what is going to happen next. Another convention of a documentary is having reconstructions. Often in documentaries, they are made after a time has passed or an event has passed, therefore to give the audience a true reflection of what happened, reconstructions are made to give a better visual understanding. Also, documentaries are inclined to having titles and music throughout. They use diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in the documentary. For example in ‘supersize me’ they use childish music to undermine McDonalds. Also, the use of archive footage and still images is another convention of a documentary. This adds authenticity to the documentary and also gives extra information of which the film maker may not have been able to find themselves. Documentaries also tend to have interviews and vox pops. A vox pop is a quick 30second interview with someone about the topic in the documentary. An interview would be a longer segment in the documentary in which the presenter would sit down with an expert. These are important in documentaries because it gives the audience a different perspective on the topic from someone else’s point of view. When I chose to do a documentary I researched many different documentaries to get a good idea of how my media product should be like. I looked at documentaries like the one on madeleine McCann, and a documentary with Conrad Murray who allegedly was behind the death of Michael Jackson, and a documentary on Amy Winehouse’s career. All three documentaries were on different topics but all shared similar codes and conventions. For example, all three documentaries had a voiceover/ narrator or a presenter. All three documentaries had interviews and vox pops with different people. The madeleine McCann documentary had a reconstruction of the night madeleine was taken, described by the voice of her mother. It was clear after watching these documentaries that I had to have a narrator/voiceover and some sort of interview in my documentary because they were important. Therefore, when it came to making my documentary, I decided to have an interview with a professional who knew about the topic I was documenting on, to give a better understanding and a broader view of my topic. Also, as well as having narration in my documentary, I used myself as a presenter to present information to the audience. I presented statistics and factual information which I also found was a convention of a documentary. Therefore I believe I used the codes and conventions of a documentary and did not challenge them. I did this because the topic I had chosen was quite a known topic and I didn’t want to make a mockery of it, I wanted to showcase my own view and give my own twist on the topic and I thought sticking to the codes and conventions would be the best way to do so. In doing this I hoped that anyone who would watch my media product would understand the topic in more depth.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I chose to do a magazine article and a poster as my ancillary texts to go with my documentary media product. As a fan of JLS I looked at how they marketed themselves. Although they aren’t documentary makers, they have an interesting design concept to promote themselves in a unique and recognisable way. Each member of the band has a colour assigned to them from the moment they stepped on our screens. They have stuck with these colours and it is how they are recognised as a 4 piece and individually. I wanted to use the same concept/theory for my own media products. I aimed to use the same colours and design theme on both the magazine article and poster so it would be recognisable to those who would see it. In the end I decided to go with different colours, but I kept the same concept with the channel 4 logo on both ancillary texts and the same information written in the same way on both texts. I decided to do it differently to the way I had originally planned because I didn’t want it to be too repetitive, which was something I hadn’t thought about beforehand. I wanted the ancillary texts to look new and fresh and eye catching. I think the combination of both my ancillary texts and media products works well.
3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
From my audience feedback I found that they quite enjoyed the documentary. Some of those who watched it said they found it interesting because it was on a topic that hasn’t been covered before and they had never seen it explained in such a way. In some documentaries that I have watched, I have seen them do interviews however they have hidden and changed the voice of the recipient they are interviewing for their safety. I thought this was an interesting segment to have as part of a documentary on something that is so hidden in society that I decided to use this in my own documentary. The feedback I received was positive and I was told it was a clever spin to my documentary. I was told it gave my documentary a true feel to it which made it more believable and touching.
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The technologies I used for my media production was the internet, an apple mac computer for which I used final cut pro and pages, a video camera, and YouTube converter. I used the internet to do my research on other documentaries. I found different documentaries on the internet and watched them which influenced my planning also as I found what I wanted to put in my own documentary and how I wanted to present it. I used final cut pro on the apple mac computer to edit my media production on final cut pro. It is easy to use and made the editing process simple and easy which allowed me time to try different things to make my documentary better. I also used software on the apple mac called pages which allowed me to make my ancillary texts. It gave me templates and blank options which I then edited and made my own, added my own information and text, my own pictures and created my own magazine article and poster. I used the video camera to construct my media product. It took around 6 sessions to shoot the whole of the documentary. I was familiar with the video camera anyway having used it the previous year to film the trailer I produced. I used YouTube converter to convert a video I thought I wanted to use as part of archive footage. Although I didn’t use the video, I still used the YouTube converter which was a new experience for me as I have never used it before. It was quick and easy.
