Namrah

Siddique

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real life media products?

1) The concept and narrative

My documentarys prime focus is to see whether online dating is something that should be
feared or embraced. This allows us to have two arguments- yes it is something that should
be feared, or no, it should be embraced. The type of narrative that a documentary is varies,
depending on the kind of subject matter, but our text is the introductory section of a whole
documentary. Therefore the narrative here needs to introduce the issue, the key
interviewees and different sides of the argument, without appearing as bias. In my opinion, I
feel that these were each addressed within our sequence. Thus we have used this particular
form and convention and succeeded.

2) The use of an authoritative and informative voice-over

The voice over used in our documentary ensured we had used this particular convention.
Our voiceover was extremely informative, it had facts, statistics and explanations all based
around our topic, allowing our audience to be well informed on the topic and understand it
thoroughly. To make our voice over sound authoritative, we had used an older person with a

Namrah
Siddique

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real life media products?
more significant voice to read out the narrative. This was because my group and I
believe it made our documentary sound a lot more professional due to the maturity in
the voice, further allowing us to ensure we had met the forms and convention of a
real documentary.

3) Interviews with individuals with knowledge about the subject

As our topic is focused around online dating, it was difficult getting hold on people who are
willing to interview about a personal topic. However, I managed to find various interviewees
who discussed their experience while using the sites and what advice they would give to
anyone trying them out. Although this isnt expert knowledge, it still allows the audience to
grasp onto real advice from the interviewees and use it if they ever do try online dating.
Although I wasnt able to interview someone of high knowledge or authority on online dating,
I still managed to interview Constable Skibbs, a police officer who discussed the dangers of
turning to online date. Using Constable Skibbs in the documentary allowed the audience to
understand how internet has it flaws, and hearing it from a person with a high role reinforced
the dangers and how to stay safe online. Overall, it is clear that we had fulfilled this
convention in our documentary.

4) Footage of real events

This convention was followed as we had used real footage for our interviews and cutaways.
This ensured that our documentary was not manipulated in any way and upheld this
convention thoroughly. Our interviews were real footage as nothing was changed and
consent was given by the interviewees, which allowed us to film them and use some scenes
as cutaways.

5) Archived footage or stills that was could not be used by the

production team
Archived footage is normally shown in historical documentaries and as this topic is quite
modern, we were unable to uphold this form and convention. We did however attempt to
contact Tinder and ask them about their app and their success stories, but we were unable
to get through with them as we did not receive a reply.

6) Natural sound and lighting

This convention was adhered to yet slightly manipulated within our documentary, for
example while filming for our cutaways, some shots were too bright and therefore had to be
edited and recoloured to flow coherently. In this sense natural light was not completely
preserved. Regarding sound, this convention was challenged and developed. For our
interviewees speaking, the sound was natural, however we did add ambient background as
we felt it sounded too monotonous otherwise. We had to make sure the sound wasnt too
loud as we didnt want to distract the audience from the actual interview. The non-diegetic
ambient sound was carried throughout the whole product and was quite upbeat, allowing the
audience to engage with the documentary more and make them feel intrigued about the
topic.

7) Set ups or reconstructions

As we wanted our documentary to be filled with real footage, we avoided having any
reconstructions. However, there was one cutaway with Mr.N Pattison that needed to be set

Namrah
Siddique

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real life media products?
up as we had lacked footage for his interview. The camera person and I had to
reschedule with him and ask him to do some acting, such as typing on his computer
and checking his emails. This was the only reconstruction we had done. However for
cutaways, some shots were slightly set up. This was done because we had to make sure we
gathered the right shots to correlate well with our documentary and the narrative. Cutaways
such as couples interacting between each other and walking towards the camera were set
up as we needed some close ups and specific shots that related to the narrative, allowing
the audience to have a visual understanding of the topic while being engaged.

8) Shaped realism
This convention is similar to verisimilitude; creating a believable world for the audience to
relate to. However as our product is a documentary, we dont create an artificial world but a
world that is more focused around nonfiction events, making everything as natural as
possible. One may assume that this is easy to gain as our footage will be natural, however
this meant that we were unable to use particular shots where the shot may look set up, i.e.
an individual looking into the camera. Similarly during the editing process for the interviews,
we had to cut out scenes where the interviewee may stop to take a pause or think, such as
saying um...err This was done because we had to ensure our documentary was coherent
and flowed well, including the speech of our interviewees being clear and natural.

9) Mise-en-scene and visual coding

Mise-en-scene was highly considered when deciding when to interview, as we had to find a
suitable time and location that would be easy for the interviewee to access as well as the
camera person and I. Uzma and Numaan Khan were filmed at my house as Uzma is my
cousin, it made sense for her to come to my house as the lighting was natural and it was
easy for her to come over. This was the easiest location and interview to obtain. Mr.Pattison
was slightly easy to interview and locate as we had filmed his interview during school in his
classroom. However, due to his busy schedule around the school, the interview felt rushed
hence why we had to record some cutaways again. Michael Douglass interview was also
done after school when it was quiet and took place in the main office. As Michael lives next
to our school, he said it would be easier for him to come here rather than us going to him.
This allowed us to set up our equipment beforehand and ensure that everything was ready
to go. Unfortunately I was unable to attend Mona Shahids interview as I had other priorities
during that day, however Simran had filmed this at Monas house as she is her aunt. This
was convenient for both Simran and Mona as they were both of them and made
rescheduling for cutaways and certain shots easier because Mona was willing to take time
out for us. Getting hold of Constable Skibbs was difficult, however when he was free, he was
able to film for us in his room. This still upheld the professional look as the background was
white and didnt look like it was filmed in school, like the other interviews. Colouring and
lighting was also considered in our documentary as some shots didnt match others,
meaning the flow was not concise. For example when filming Uzma and Numaans interview,
the footage was too orange due to the light, however after adding colouring to the shots and
retouching the lighting, the interview to looked more vivid and professional. As we aimed to
go for a natural look like other documentaries, it can suggest that we followed this
convention thoroughly.

10)

Text and titles

As our product is one part of a whole documentary, the only title that would be shown is the
titlecard in the introductory stating the directors name and the name of the project. Various

Namrah
Siddique

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real life media products?
texts were used in the production for multiple reasons. When an interviewee would
appear on the screen, a lower third would be presented with the name and
occupation of the individual. This allowed the audience to recognise and identify
each interviewee without hassle. There was also a segment at the end of the documentary
that stated, END OF PART ONE to let the audience know that this was a continuous series,
this was then further followed by a quote that correlated well with our topic. This further
emphasizes how we had followed the forms and conventions correctly as most
documentaries use the texts and titles the way we did.

Graphics
Graphics are mainly used in documentaries to highlight specific facts and catch the viewers
attention. Although we had lacked this slightly, we did use graphics in some ways. For
example, when the voice over says feared or embraced, a graphic appears on the screen
that also says feared vs embraced. This allowed the audience to visually connect and
understand the topic clearly, rather than just through hearing the narrative. It is clear to see
that we had upheld this convention thoroughly.