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

real media products?From when starting our coursework we all thought about what topic we would like the documentary to be on. We came up with the idea of ‘Appearance’. We looked at documentaries on you tube to give us ideas as to what we could include. The documentary only had to be five minutes long meaning we could research in detail what was vital to include. We looked at ‘Supersize vs Super-skinny’ http://www.channel4.com/programmes/supersize-vs-superskinny/4od ‘Embarrising bodies’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_TPoiQ01Ro&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dembarrising%2Bbodies&has_verified=1and ‘Fashion TV’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylcPqmZ4ESw&feature=fvstwhich we used as background footage. We used this as background footage as it showed the pressures of appearance, like models whose career resolve around it. This helped us gain some knowledge into what makes a documentary look professional using certain conventions.

Cut away from interview to too much too young

From watching some documentaries I learnt that for professional interviews the camera angle used was a medium close up. Also when interviewing people with authoritative status’ the camera position was carefully used for example the interview would be in an office background, we followed this convention in our documentary shown when we went to interview someone who worked at Fitness First. We followed the rule of thirds she was positioned to the left of the image. We used a medium long shot so that you could see her gym uniform and then did a cut away to ‘too much too young’.

To create our documentary we used final cut express.

We used an office setting for the Yves Saint Laurent interview as she was a makeup consultant and we thought it would look more professional doing it in an office background, as it made her look like she has connotations of power.

When editing our documentary we didn’t use many effects, mainly we used fades to black, straight cuts and cut away’s. We tried to use the rule of thirds when doing interviews I think this worked successfully here as the mise-en-scene was used to elevate her position.

When editing we did a fade to black as we had noticed these were used on other documentaries we had watched. We did this as it was a punctuation mark to move to a different scene. We used it as a punctuation mark to move the subject on, we thought this would help to appeal to our target audience. We also used cut away’s with the Yves Saint Lauren interview and cut away to the makeup artist putting makeup on a customer. We found this effective as the audience would not get bored listening to just one person talk.

Cut away from interview to makeup artist at stand

When doing straight cuts we thought they would work well as we had several images of the shops in Solihull. It made it very fast moving enhancing how much pressure is put onto people to make sure there appearance is up to scratch.

Images we had collected to put together a clip of all the shops that had something to do with appearance

When we did our vox pops we used more of a medium/medium long shot. This was to create the impression that they were not as authoritative as our main professional interviews. There was also more background noise to show that it was in a more realistic environment.

However I think we could have also done some vox pops outside of the college to get a more varied age range, which may have been more appropriate as our target audience is broad, ranging from 14-45.

Small space above the head

Medium closeup

Relevant mise-en-scene occupying just over half the frame

Follows the rule of thirds

Another convention that we tried to follow was the framing of our interviews, we noticed when watching professional documentaries many of the interviews were set up this way. I think they way in which we filmed ours was very similar to a real interview. However ours was done in an office setting where the source of light was fake and the professional interview was natural.

We wanted the opening of our documentary successful and eye catching, we made it different by giving a definition of ‘appearance’ and ‘pressure’ then after a few seconds gave the title which was written using lipstick we thought this looked effective and worked well with the title.

With the description of the words we used the typewriter effect, background music was played throughout with it opening quietly to get this effect we had to adjust the sound levels. We also had to change the sound levels in some of the interviews as some of the Yves Saint Laurent ones were too quiet.

The music was discrete, to help add to the documentary but not over powering. The voice over was clear and well paced. It was in time with what was being shown on screen and each section had a brief overview given as to what was happening.

Once we had recorded the voice over we had to make sure the sound levels were correct and had been suitably adjusted to ensure it sounded as professional as we could make it.

Adjusting the sound levels using final cut express

Microphone used when recording voice over

We also had to consider how our ancillary tasks developed, challenged forms and conventions within our magazine article and radio trailer. In the same way we looked at different documentaries we did the same for the ancillary tasks. This was our final magazine outcome that contains many conventions of a professional one:

Headline and buy line giving main details about the documentary

Drop cap

A pull quote

Smaller images included showing some of the interviewees contained in the documentary Footer with page number

and name of magazine

Paragraph crossheads

Headline in bold to stand out and grab viewers attention

Smaller images

Drop cap

Pull quote

Headline in bold bigger writing

From doing research into different magazine listings I found out the conventions that were used in professional articles we followed and copied there layout; page numbers in the footer, a variety of images that would be shown in the documentary, article credits, tilting of pictures we used this as we thought it made the article look more interesting and more appropriate for the target audience, and also highlighting when the documentary would be shown giving clear details of; the date, time and channel. We decided our magazine was going to be for the magazine fabulous as this was aimed at women so our topic would fit in well.

When creating the magazine article we used Indesign

Here you can see I am using the draw button to create a box for an image to go in.

This is what the box looked like once drawn I used the rotate button to

move the box into a different angle so

that the image would be on a slant making

it more attractive.

This was the text button that you used

to create any text.

This is what the layout looked like once we had drafted it before adding all the images and text. The boxes with crosses show where the images will be placed, and the blank boxes are text boxes for the

writing to go into. The text will be put into columns to follow the style of a professional magazine

article.

Here you can see this is what our magazine looked like once it was finished and edited. I was pleased with the overall outcome of the

magazine as I think it follows codes and conventions that are included in real magazines.

From the other slides you can that this is what the images

looked like when I had turned them

round to make them on a slant. I think they look more

appealing and eye catching.

From using the text button you can we

that we have tried to follow a consistent

style making the text in columns. Similar to

how a real life magazine looks.

Before starting our radio trailer we looked at several that had already been done by students last year, this helped as this gave us inspiration we also listened to some professional ones. Once we had done this this helped us to decide what station our radio trailer would be most suitable for, we thought Capital FM as this linked most well to Channel 4, which is where our documentary would be shown.

When creating our radio trailer we had to concentrate mainly on the sound. We tried to make our voice over appealing to try and capture the listens' attention, we made it loud and enthusiastic whilst also giving vital information about when the documentary would be shown. As well as having a voice over we put in quotes out of the interviews to give a taster of what would be included in the documentary.

We decided that our target audience would be age 14-45. This broad range comes from the topic of the documentary being so universal which all ages can relate to. With our chosen channel being Channel 4, this was another reason why a variety of ages would watch our documentary as we picked a main channel. Channel 4 is known for its insightful programmes into everyday matters, usually being shocking and approaching topics from new and engaging perspective. We thought that our documentary was fitting to this style, which influenced our decision for the channel. As research, we went onto the 4od website and watched clips of programmes that focused on similar ideas to our documentary. These included 'Supersize vs Super skinny' and 'Embarrassing Bodies'. Watching these gave us inspiration for background footage and also the kind of conventions our documentary would have to include to fit in on Channel 4.