Question 1: In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?
At the start of the A2 Course, we were given a brief as to what we had to
do for our coursework. This was to create an opening 5 minutes for a
documentary on a topic of our choosing. In addition, we also had to
submit two ancillary tasks, a radio trailer and a double page listings
spread in order to promote the documentary.

Documentary:
Bill Nicholls' theory of documentary modes became the basis to the
ddevelopment of our documentary. Once selected, it was important to
stick to the conventions of the mode. Our documentary is most like the
expository mode. Expository mode addresses the viewer directly in order
to advance an argument or recount history. They are often subjective and
polemical, giving a factual, yet rhetorical opinion throughout. Most
expository mode documentaries use a voice over, since it allows the
figures and fact to be shown on screen while the voice over is narrating.
As our documentary discusses an issue with the way in which we use
social stereotypes negatively, suggests our documentary is slightly
expository. We are trying to make people think differently.
From watching documentaries, I took
careful note of the different camera
shots used and why they were so
effective. Some of the camera shot
types that I noticed in these
documentaries were Close up,
Medium close up, long shot, establishing shot and wide shot. In
the documentary 'Supersize me' it often showed use of
establishing shots and close up shot and long shot. A
lot of the vox pops were spontaneous, in a setting
where McDonalds was clear seen in the background
and would also use cut away shots of 'McDonalds'
products. Doing this highlights the subject of the
documentary and redirects the audience to think and focus of
'McDonalds'. We have attempted to follow this convention in our
documentary, by filming the Solihull Sixth Form logo to direct the
audience into thinking how schools are a cause for social labels, then used
cut away shots to Beth dressed as the different stereotypes

We used handheld camera for a couple of clips

which we eddited so there was a cut away sot
while they were talking in the interview. Handheld
camera footage tends to go against the main
conventions of a documentary as most
documentaries are formal
and use a tripod at all
times. However, we
decided to go against the convention as it makes
the shot look a little edgier and fast pace, which is
how we perceived our target audience.

Another was we set up our camera shot was using a

tripod. The main use of the tripod was for expert
interviews and Vox pops. Doing this allowed us to be
able to set the camera in not only a professional
manor but also still. As we wanted
to get some good establishing shots of the college
ground and canteen, we found the tripod to be very
useful for this. We would set up the tripod and do a
combination of a pan and zoom, to achieve a shot
that would look effective and professional. A
convention we followed, was the position and
direction in which the person being interviewed looked. During 'Supersize
Me' people who were being interviewed didnt look towards the camera,
but at Spurlock while he was asking the questions. This is something we
also decided to do, so when filming we would stand behind the camera to
the left and when asking the questions, interview would look to wards us.
This then give the appearance that the answers being given are purely
their answers and their opinions and aren't giving an answer crafted
because they are speaking to the camera. We know and our audience
knows the authenticity of answers.
In our documentary, we followed the conventions of having both vox pops
and expert interviews. We used vox pops as a way of gaining authentic
and truthful opinions of teenagers to whom our documentary is targeted
towards. Using the vox pops helps to build an argument for our expository
documentary. In 'Supersize Me', they used a handheld camera for the vox
pops. However, as it was an interview, we felt this was too informal, so we
challenged this convention and decided to use the tripod when filming
interviews as it was far more professional and steady looking. An
important factor when filming these interviews was mise-en-scene. We

made sure that our experts were near a

desk and dressed smartly, in order to
convey their importance and expertise. In
addition, from watching documentaries,
we discovered that the use of caption on
the expert interviews also showed that
they were important on the subject and
topic of the documentary. However, we
slightly challenged the conventions of
using a caption in a documentary due to the fact we used a white, slightly
opaque, background. We felt that this
really helped that little bit more to make
the caption stand out even more,
reinforcing the fact that this expert
opinion is valuable. In addition, we made
sure that our expert was also sitting on
the right side of the screen

Our documentary uses a rhetorical

narrative structure, and tries to voice an
argument which tries to persuade and
inform the target audience of the problem of
'Social Stereotypes' and the labels and
judgment of their appearance may be both
negative and incorrect. In the creation of our
documentary, we had the option of either
having an on screen presenter, voice over, or
even both, we decided on having a voice over.
The use of a voice over both challenges and
conforms to real media products. The main reason we decided to use a
voice over is because it is highly effective at putting across the argument.
We thought this suited our documentary style much better and decided to
challenge the convention of having an on screen presenter as we didnt
want the audience focusing on us, but at the facts
and figure and the cut away shots designed to
back up the argument.
Within the voice over, we followed the
conventions of having facts linked to our
documentary. This follows the 'Voice of God'
element. To do this, in our planning and
research we used a questionnaire and focus
group design to give use an idea about the topic of our documentary. From
this, we learned that 75% of the people we asked felt they had been

victimised due to their appearance. Along with this statistic, we also

showed it subtitled on the screen, while a clip was shown of a group of
teenager. Doing this helped link back to the subject of the documentary
and who we are targeting this statistic towards. We found this to follow
the main convention of statics and facts, as seen in 'Supersize me' they
also shows the statistics on screen, while they were read out by the voice
over, Morgan Spurlock, which we found as an audience to be effective and
well received. You not only read the fact but you hear it to.
Background music was something that we followed in the conventions
of documentaries. The background music
chosen had to be just right and balanced in
sound levels so that it isn't too over
powering, or isn't noticeable at all. In the
documentary 'Supersize Me' the background
music were copyrighted songs such as 'Fat
Bottomed Girls'. As a consequence, we had
to challenge this and use music that wasnt
copyrighted off the media website. We selected 'Jam1' for our background
music as it had a quick tempo which helped give the documentary a fast
pace, extremely suitable for our target audience.

Transitions and
special effects were an important feature in the documentary. From
watching 'Supersize me' they often changed the use of
transition depending the effect they were trying to give.
Often they wouldnt use a transition which meant the
clips when straight from one to another, the effect of this
was that the pace of the documentary was quickened. We
decided to follow this convention and use it in
our documentary. Towards the beginning and
end we also put clips one after another to
increase the pace. We felt that by doing this, it
would suit and appeal more to our target
Here is an
audience. Also, we adopted the use of the 'Fade
example of
t black' which was often used. By using this, it
the fading to
made the transition from one clip to another much smoother. However, weblack
did challenge the conventions of transitions as we used the cube
transition.
transition when going from a vox pop to archive footage. We really liked
the effect of this, it was something a bit different for our documentary.
Here is an example
of the transition.

Magazine:
For our listing magazine's double
page spread, we decided to choose
'Radio Times'. One of the main
reasons for this is because it is one
of the most well know, and popular
listings magazines.
One of the main conventions of a
'Radio Times' magazine is the fact
that at the bottom of the page it
always says 'Radio Times' in a bold
font. We have chosen to do the
same as we want to make our
magazine as authentic and as
aesthetically pleasing as possible.
I have followed the conventions of having a drop cap at the start of my
article. I decided to followed
this convention as the bold
capital letter helps to direct
the audiences eyes to the start of
the article. The fact that the drop
cap is also blue in colour again
helps to draw attention to the start
of the article as it is a strong bright
contrast in colour compared to the
standard, professional black font.
These images selected to be
presented in the magazine follow
the convention of a listings
magazine as the images selected are from the documentary itself.
Therefore, it enables a link to be made between the article and the actual
documentary. Also, the fact that we used images from the documentary

give and insight as to what the documentary is about. In addition, we

have chosen to follow the magazine s convention of using a large image
that takes up more than one page as we feel it is the image that sums up
our documentary. Also, we decided to but the main image mostly on the
left side of the page as it follows the convention of a magazine. Since we
read and look left to right, it
seemed appropriate to place the
image more dominantly on the
left hand side.
However, we have decided to
challenge the conventions of use
of colour within our double page spread. Even
though there I little use above, we made the
decision to chose something bright and fun as an accent colour so that it
could highlight key point on our double page spread. The use of colour
also adds some edginess and fun to the article, which would be more
appealing to our younger target audience.
We also followed the conventions of a TV
listings magazine by including pull quotes.
These were embedded within the article.
These were specific points in the article
that we wanted to emphasise.

Radio trailer:
In order to gain a full understanding as to the
convention of a radio trailer, we listened to a ranges
of different ones for different stations. We looked at
the main station which have advert breaks such as
Capital fm, Free radio and heart. Due to the fact our
target audience in 13-21, we felt it was suitable to go
for a radio station which also has a close enough target audience. As a
result, we found Capita Fm as the most suitable radio station to feature
our documentary trailer.
The opening of the radio trailer features rhetorical questions 'Ever feel
stereotyped or like you dont fit in?' These questions are quite deep and
generic which means they will apply to a lot of people. A listener may hear
this and become interested in the documentary as it is a topic which many
both understand and have been subjected to. This is one of the main
conventions with radio adverts as they are great way to engage the
listener, the question only sums up what the advert it trying to say.

The radio trailers we listened to were all in between 20-40 seconds. This
isn't too long, which meant all points needed to be put across clearly and
quickly. We mirrored the duration in our radio trailer as it was just over 30
seconds. We felt that everything important and vital was put across
quickly and clear