Evaluation Question 1

Conventions of a Documentary

• Hand held Camera - creates a sense of realism and personalised point of view

• Narrative Voice Over - usually directly addressing the audience to involve them as well as giving added detail about the documentary

• Interviews with experts / witnesses / general public - Vox Pops

• Parallel Editing linking key scenes

• Use of Archive footage to support filmed scenes

• Mediated culture – documentaries select and construct, allowing opinion and subjectivity

• Selective editing - filmmakers cut and edit clips in order to construct and portray specific meaning

• Often point of view with encoded ideology, preferred meaning

• Use of Establishing Shot and Close Ups/Medium Close Ups

• Often single stranded, linear – the documentary is usually about only one topic

• Exploration of narrative themes, messages and values

• Different purposes – to entertain, inform, educate, shock, for propaganda purposes, etc.

• Eye-Level Camera angles

• Diegetic Sound - interviews

• Non-diegetic sound - voice overs & background music

• Non-linear clips - cutting back and forth between interviews

• Linear structure - beginning middle end

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

forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product is a short documentary exploring music and fashion in and around the city of Manchester. It uses vox pops and sound bites throughout, giving opinions and information from the public that I interviewed in Manchester. When studying ‘real media products’ I noticed that a common media convention is the use of vox pops so I decided to use them in my own documentary as a way of conveying it’s message to viewers as vox pops commonly deliver information in smalls ‘chunks’ making the viewer stay interested, rather than long interviews where concentration can be easily lost.

Vox Pops

I have made comparisons between Inside Manchester and another similar fashion documentary; From Water To Ice. Both of these documentaries use vox pops with interviewees and experts to give the audience information about the subject.

Voiceover

Inside Manchester: Music & Fashion also opens with a voiceover of me, explaining the documentary and some background information about Manchester and the aims of what my music and fashion documentary hopes to achieve. This voiceover is played over cutaways of different locations in Manchester, to give the viewer an idea of what my media product is about.

I overlapped my music and different voiceover narrations to make them run smoothly and without gaps. I reduced the volume of the music so the narration could be heard clearly by viewers.

MCU/CU Shots

A stereotypical convention of a short documentary is the use of close up and medium close up filming, with the person speaking to the camera facing straight forward. This gets the head and shoulders of the interviewee into the shot and gives viewers something more to concentrate on as they can clearly see the person’s facial expressions and as my documentary reflects fashion, the viewer is able to see in detail what the interviewee is wearing. My documentary also uses the convention of the camera being at the interviewee’s eye level, as a way of making the viewer feel more involved with the interview and keeping them interested in the documentary.

Both Inside Manchester and From Water to Ice use medium close up and close up shots to frame the interviewee. And to show what they are wearing because of the fashion based nature of the documentaries.

Professional Interviews

Another convention of a documentary is the use of professional views from people who know and relate to the field of the documentary. In this case, Inside Manchester spoke to Sam Webb, an 18 year old singer/songwriter; for his take on how music relates to fashion. I also interviewed a teenage model, Amy Heard on her opinions, and as well, I interviewed Mark Radcliffe of BBC Radio 6 who has been a radio presenter and TV personality, who spoke about his personal views after being a well-known expert in the music industry for many years.

By comparing documentaries of a similar content and style, I decided that using professional interviews helps back up facts and opinions. In From Water To Ice, Anh Volcek is a fashion designer discussing her expert ideas.

Professional Interviews

I have introduced my experts at the beginning of the documentary, with a name strap showing their name and profession, showing viewers how they relate to the themes and messages of Inside Manchester.

Experts

Being able to interview Mark Radcliffe not also gave Inside Manchester: Music and Fashion a more professional feel with the use of an interview from an expert in the music business, who has extensive years of experience in radio and television, festivals, and who has met many credible musicians, ranging from David Bowie to Jake Bugg. This meant that he had lots of useful and insightful information and expert opinions and views on the topics discussed in my documentary. To make the documentary filming look even more professional, I was invited to interview Mark at BBC 6 Music studio in Media City in Manchester, relating to the theme of the documentary, and also gave an important insight into the workings of the BBC and radio and television studios.

Multi-strand narrative

Most documentaries are based around one main idea, whereas Inside Manchester, my documentary, explores the links between many; a multi-strand narrative. I looked at the differences and similarities between music and fashion, and how it creates stereotypes, and how they are perceived by people in everyday life. By exploring how different strands link, this challenges the media convention of a single strand narrative.

I interviewed lots of young people and edited the vox pops together going between different opinions and interviewees to give the multi-strand narrative.

Name Straps

A common convention of a documentary is the use of name straps when introducing new people into the narrative, which I adhered to when making Inside Manchester. I used a recurring font throughout the documentary, applying it to these name straps when introducing the subject experts, for example, Amy Heard, with a short subheading on her professional role. I also used this same font on the screens that tell the viewer the question being answered in the vox pops, and the title sequence and end credits. By keeping this font the same throughout, it gives the documentary a professional feel and creates a theme.

By introducing experts at the beginning of the documentary, it gives viewers an idea of their relation to the topics discussed, and their professional role. By researching other documentaries such as From Water To Ice, I found that this is a common convention.