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

The brief we were given in the beginning of our A2 course, was to create an opening 5minutes for a television documentary. Alongside this, were two ancillary tasks; a radio trailer and a double page spread for a listings magazine, to back up our documentary. I have watched many different documentaries, for example supersize me, panorama, and airline in preparation of making our documentary on stereotyping. In order to follow the conventions of a documentary I had to conduct some analysis on these documentaries to see what they all had in common so that we were able to use the same conventions in our documentary. From this deep analysis we found out what the typical codes and conventions were. The codes and conventions of a documentary are: Voiceover Interviews Vox pops Back ground footage Music Facts and statistics Archive footage

How our documentary follows the same codes and conventions Interviews

As you can see the setup of these interviews are very similar. For example the header saying the interviewees name and role, as well as this the person being interviewed is not looking at the camera but at the person asking the question. Finally just like in both images the interviewee is in their on work place, we did this because it makes the documentary look professional and sophisticated. We did not feel we needed to challenge or develop this code and convention as we didnt feel it was necessary, plus we felt the setup looked professional and looked like a professional documentary interview set up.

Archaic footage

We have followed the codes and conventions of a documentary by including several clips or archive footage. I have compared our archive footage of the London riots, portraying teenagers badly, which therefore is a negative effect on stereotyping on young people, with this shot of a panorama documentary on binge drinking In the UK. As well as this in both ours and the other documentary there is the voiceover playing which is linking to the footage. We have done this to make the documentary more interesting for the viewers as well as making the documentary look professional as most professional documentaries include archive footage

Facts and statistics

As you can see we have followed the codes and conventions of a documentary by including facts and statistics. In our documentary it is showing the amount of crimes committed by white people. Similarly in the Supersize me documentary there are facts and statistics, in this instance it using both graphics and facts to show the obesity trends in America in 2002. As well as using this code and convention we have also challenged the conventions as we do not use graphics to support our facts and statistics, this is because we felt it would be better kept simple with Solihull Sixth form students in the background as it relates to the topic of stereotyping in young people.

Voxpops

Throughout our documentary we used many Voxpops of students from Solihull sixth form. These screen shots show the similarities with our Voxpops compared to the ones used in the supersize me documentary. As you can see both shots are medium shots as we felt it was the best looking shot. However we have challenged the codes and conventions, as in the other screen shot they are getting 2 peoples opinions. We didnt choose to do this as stereotyping is a personal topic therefore felt it was best to interview one person at a time. As well as this in many of the supersize me Voxpoxps they are using a hand held camera which adds a sense of informality. We choose not to do this as again our documentary is on quite a serious topic therefore didnt feel it was necessary.

Summary
Overall I feel we followed most of the codes and conventions of a particular documentary, and the challenges that we made were suitable. We used a different variety of shots in the documentary just like in the supersize me documentary which made it look professional. The use of background footage music was non- diegetic and was made by the group. This was faint throughout the documentary as we didnt want the music to overpower the facts and also the interviews. Also the use of the sound levels were generally good when it came to the interviews and Voxpops as in most cases you could hear the interviews clearly. The changes that I would have made would have been to lower the music levels as in some cases it is quite difficult to hear what the person is saying as the music is too loud. As well as this I would have interviewed young people outside the college to get their opinion. However due to transport and carrying equipment this would have been difficult to do as well as compromising with the college.

Magazine article
For our magazine article we decided to use the same images that are used in the documentary as we wanted to create brand identity and consistency in both our products. This is a code and convention we have followed as this is done to attract the viewers what will be included in the documentary and what they expect to see without giving too much away. As well as this we have also used the same title Who we are in both documentary and double page spread, the effect of this is again brand identity which makes both products look more professional. Furthermore we used the colour

scheme of white, black and red as we felt they were simple but effective colour schemes which will be used to attract our target audience, we also tried to use the same colours in our documentary as this is a code and convention that most documentaries use.

The title of both the magazine and documentary.

Another code and convention that we followed is including the time and date for when the documentary will be shown. We didnt feel the need to challenge or develop this as this is a necessity to the readers in order for them to know when it will be shown.

We also included a sub headline as this is a code and convention of a double page spread which we used to engage with the readers and hopefully make them read on to see what the documentary is about. The use of ellipsis is also appealing to the readers as it suggests that after reading they will understand what the documentary is about, which is also a code and convention that we have followed.

Headline/ title same as the TV programme

Sub headline

Time and date for when it will be shown

Drop cap used in both

Quote from the documentary, this is a code and convention used to attract the readers. We have also developed this code and convention as we have highlighted the key words in this quote in red to make it stand out to the readers and make the quote more effective.

Another code and convention followed is a main image, this is a still image from the documentary,

The use of a drop cap being used, suggests to the readers where the article begins. This is also a common code and convention used in double page spreads.

Also used another smaller image on the double page spread, this is a code and convention that we wanted to use as it makes the double page spread look more appealing to look at. As well as this we have included a quote from the documentary that the person has said to add more emphasis on the topic of the documentary as well as making it stand out more.

Summary
Overall we havent really challenged the codes and conventions of a documentary as well felt it was best kept simple and straight forward so that our readers knew what was going on in the double page spread, as well as giving them an overview on what will be featured in the documentary. On the other hand we have developed a code and convention by adding in a quote from the documentary but highlighting the key words in red. This was done for 2 reasons; 1 so that it makes the words stand out so that it engages with our target audience, and secondly because of us using

red this follows our colour scheme in both the magazine article and documentary which has been done for brand identity and consistency.

Radio trailer
From our research that we carried from other radio trailers we found out that most of them used voiceovers and also included quotes from the actual documentary as well as other typical codes and conventions from other radio trailers. Taking this on board we used the same narrator for the documentary than we did with the radio trailer. We followed this code and convention as it adds a brand identity throughout and avoids confusion with our viewers. Another code and convention that we followed was using snippets of quotes that are used in our documentary, taken from interviews and Voxpops. We did this as it makes the radio trailer more exciting to listen to as the listeners get an idea of the topics that are covered in the documentary. The radio trailer starts with a quote with one of our experts saying that stereotyping generally isnt a very positive thing to do. The effect of this is that it is a bold statement to start the radio trailer, which will instantly grab their attention and later on may encourage them to watch the full documentary.

These are all the clips from the documentary that are included in our documentary, which are Voxpops and interviews.

As you can see the script for the radio trailer is just over 49 seconds long. And from our research the average length of time for a radio trailer was between 20- 45 seconds. Our overall radio trailer was around 90 seconds. From this we have clearly challenged a code and convention of a typical radio trailer. Even though we included vital information about the documentary, looking back it may be slightly too long as we may have given too much about the documentary away. In our script you may notice that we have our own twitter page where people can join in with the debate. This is a code and convention that is being challenged as not all radio trailers include this. We thought this would be good as, because our topic is based on young people, it would be necessary as most young people have twitter, therefore people can say their opinions and get involved in the documentary which would also promote it and therefore attract more young viewers through social medial.

Also in our radio trailer you may notice that our documentary is being shown on channel 4 at 8pm. We decided to use this channel as they show similar controversial documentaries that are aimed at young people therefore we didnt feel the need to challenge this code and convention as it would have been harder to reach our target audience. The music is also challenging the codes and conventions of a radio trailer as it is different from the music used in the documentary as it is more up tempo which will keep our viewers engaged more.

Summary
In conclusion I believe that both the magazine article and documentary follow the codes and conventions the most, and the radio trailer is the one that is being challenged the most; this is for both good and bad reasons as the radio trailer may be considered as too long therefore boring the listeners. However the decision to make the music more up tempo and exciting, counter balances the point that the radio trailer may come across to long and boring.