In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

Question One – EvaulationAbbie Gumbley

As part of the A2 Media course in groups of four we had to produce a five minute opening to a documentary, along side a 30 second long radio trailer and a double page magazine article for a listings magazine to support the documentary.

We decided on making a documentary asking the question ‘do violent videogames affect behaviour negatively?’ we called the documentary ‘Banned Theft Auto’ as it was a play on words from the existing violent video game that is called ‘Grand Theft Auto’

We interviewed a variety of different people from society such as Policemen and Teachers and general members of the public to see what their opinions on the topic is, we then recorded these views and used them as part of the documentary to create a controversial feel to the documentary

Our brief for the A2 coursework

Common Conventions: Professional Interviews

When researching the documentary genre it was clear that professional interviews were presented in a particular way meaning it was vital that in our five minute opening piece we had to follow these conventions.

Super Size Me ‘Banned Theft Auto’

At the beginning of all interviews the interviewees name and job title was shown the on the bottom left hand corner of the screen so it was clear who the person was. We successfully did this in our documentary and used a white text colour to enable it to stand out. This shown by the green boxes in the images.‘Rule of thirds’ – throughout ‘Super Size Me’ the professional interviews all professionals were sitting on the right hand side of the screen, not looking directly at the camera. In our documentary we replicated this successfully as we also used a background that represented the interviewees profession. This is represented with the red lines on the images.

Common Conventions:Vox Pops

Super Size Me ‘Banned Theft Auto’

Whilst investigating the documentaries it was clear that Vox Pops were able to be random with little preparation needing to be made asides from preparing questions for the person you would be interviewing these questions are usually open questions to ensure that the interviewee will be able to talk about the subject.

It was apparent that in every Vox Pop none of the people being interviewed looked at the camera when answering the questions, so we always asked the person being interviewed to look at the person asking the questions. I am pleased with how the Vox Pops look on the camera and sound as we were concerned that the background noise would interfere.

Common Conventions:Stock Footage

Super Size Me

The Stock Footage in ‘Super Size Me’ was relevant to the topic in which Morgan Spurlock’s documentary was based on, so it was clear that all the stock footage used in our documentary had to be relevant and appeal to our target audience.

Throughout our documentary we used footage from existing violent video games, at the beginning of the documentary we played back to back clips of the footage as a way to create excitement. We also used the clips as a way of backing up any points that were being made, this was relevant as the subject of our documentary was violent video games.As well as this we also used existing news items that are about violent video games as part of our stock footage, to show a variety of views from around the world.I am pleased with the stock footage that was used in the documentary as it was all relevant to the topic and it created some controversy as to whether the violent video games to affect behaviour.

Banned Theft AutoExample of violent game footage used in the documentary

Example an existing news item that we used a sample of the documentary

Common Conventions:Title Sequence

Banned Theft Auto title sequenceThe title sequence for our documentary meets the typical codes and conventions of a documentary as it was fast paced and interesting to watch with relevant background music. We used scrabble pieces to spell out the words ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and the printed out a gun off the internet and made it appear as if it shot the word ‘Grand’ we then replaced the word with ‘Banned’.This was an interesting way to do the title sequence as we had not seen it be done in any of the existing documentaries that we have watched. I am extremely pleased with how this went as it will be appealing to the audience because it is different and exciting to look at.

Challenging the common conventions of a our media texts

Our documentary did not necessarily challenge the codes and conventions of the documentary genre, this is because the existing media texts that we have watched have featured all of the methods used in our documentary.Similarly the radio trailer we made also followed the common conventions of the radio trailers, for example we told the audience the name of the documentary and the time, date and channel that documentary would be featured on in the same voice used in the documentary.

However when creating the magazine article, we did not use an image to fill an entire page of the double page spread. This is unusual as when we have looked at existing double page spreads the majority feature an entire page of an image, we decided against this as we felt for our documentary it was more appropriate to use smaller images.

Common Conventions –Magazine Article

When researching into existing magazines there were various conventions that were commonly used through out.

Throughout all the magazines there was always a subheading that started the written piece, this was always indicated by two lines, with the name of the programme, the date and channel that programme would be aired on. This was successful as it makes it clear to the audience when the documentary is on and they will be able to reference it quickly if they need to.

Another common convention was the use of a footer at the bottom of the page that stated the magazine that they were reading and the date. This was useful as it ensure the reader that the copy they are reading is not out of date. It also tells the reader what magazine they are reading in case they have forgotten.

Common Conventions – Radio Trailer

When researching the radio trailer genre the conventions were:

• At the end of every trailer that we listened to the channel that the programme would be aired on and the time and date of when the documentary will be shown. We successfully did this in our radio trailer which was effective as it will stick in the audiences head.

• The same voiceover used in the documentary is used in the radio trailer, we followed this convention as it meant that the audience will be familiar with the voice when watching the documentary.

•As well as the same voice over, the same music was continued throughout both the documentary and the radio trailer we used the same music that we created on Garage Band again this created familiarity for the audience of the documentary.

https://soundcloud.com/jessp3000/bta-radio-trailer Click this link to sound cloud to hear the radio trailer for Banned Theft Auto.