In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

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Question 1

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

Figure 1 Figure 2

Figure 3 Figure 4

Figure 5 Figure 6
Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Documentary texts aim to document reality, attempting veracity in their depiction of people,
places and events. Our product mainly conforms to the expository mode of documentary films as
it directly addresses a social issue that is assembled into an argumentative frame. One of the
stylistic signatures of such documentaries is the use of a voice-over. This was one of the most
significant elements that established our product as a documentary and as a source of knowledge.
In our voice-over we included statistics and observational facts, which encourages the audience
to think that the narrator, either has specialist knowledge, or that he has the 'right' opinions that
people should pay attention to. This adds credibility to our documentary film. Moreover voice-
over narration allowed for maximum control over sound.

Typically, documentaries have exposition at the beginning in order to introduce the important
themes in the film. So, as Figure 1 illustrates, for our exposition we have used archive footage
of already taken pictures of newspaper articles on one of the major issues in our documentary
which is the drastic increase of university tuition fees. The composition and design of the
beginning also find similarities to short informative documentaries featured in the news.

Then as documentaries follow reality, Figure 2 is an example of where we also have resorted to
'real' footage of events where, via the use of technicalities of realism such as original lighting
and sound, the occurrences we have presented appear to the audience as real and unaltered, even
though in places, for example Figure 3 and Figure 4, the voice-over and editing inevitably have
adapted reality to our topic.

Another commonly used convention is the inclusion of interviews. Figure 5 is an shows that our
documentary contains a selection of interviewees who present different points of view and
therefore construct a balanced argument. Also by giving their expert opinions, they authenticate
the investigation that our documentary carries on. Our interviewees were only asked questions
that give a rationale that supports the main theme presented within the documentary. This was
done so that our audience is not distracted by any irrelevant information which in turn makes it
easier for them to understand the core of the argument and come to their own conclusion of what
to believe. In addition, as there is no scripted version of spoken language for our interviewees,
their speech resembles speech used in everyday life where speakers typically fill in the gaps of
their phrases with various exclamations and sounds that maintain the flow of verbal
communication, which is again another characteristic of reality. Furthermore, characters in
documentary films typically demonstrate a wider variety of accents, dialects, and speech patterns
than those found in fiction films. Our documentary includes this feature, as there is an evident
variation of accents, which makes our product appeal to a much wider audience. After all, the
theme we are exploring relates to students all over Britain.

Then, there is the use of cut-away shots which is usually linked with words that characters say.
This visual representation of the characters thoughts helps position the viewer in the story and
helps the viewer better understand what the character is saying. Figure 6 is an example of a cut-
away accompanied by the speech of an interviewee whilst he is talking about universities being
“subsidised by the tax payer” and “a time where there was no tuition fees” in correspondence the
cut-away provides a visual image of a poster saying “ FREE EDUCATION NOW”.

During the interviews we paid attention to the visual coding such as the mise-en-scene and the
inclusion of props. For example, in Figure 5, in the background on the wall is the British flag
but also at the desk on the left side is a statuette holding a smaller British flag. This was done
with the intention to emphasise the British government’s authority and hint at the audience that
the interviewee is a political figure and so is likely to present the government’s general
perspectives on education.

Also a quick way of conveying information that tends to be believed unquestioningly is the
conventional use of titles and text, which either anchor an image or stand alone to illustrate a
point. For each interview we have included titles in order to introduce the speakers (an example
is Figure 5). Figure 7, on the other hand, shows where we have used text to put emphasis on the
increase of tuition fees. So by making it the central point and the only element of information on
the screen it encourages the audience to accept the statement as factual information.

Nonetheless, another one of the most common stylistic characteristics of documentaries is non-
digetic sound such as music. In general, music plays an important part in the soundscape of
documentary films, in particular recorded music rather than music found on location. The music
we chose for our documentary is slow pace and so maintains a relaxed mood throughout but
also, together with the voice-over, acts as a bridge between scenes and consequently helps the
continuity of the piece.

Towards the end, realism is once again illustrated as there is footage taken by a hand held
camera and where ambient sounds compete with dialogue. This is the case in Figure 8 where
there is a close up of a police man being injured during a riot. The shaky camera symbolises the
chaos of the event. Similarly, the fiction film The Blair Witch Project makes use of the jiggly
camera as a means of reinforcing its documentary-like style.

Our documentary challenged conventions of the genre by using 'reality' that the audience already
recognises in order to set-up a scene as opposed to capture a real event. This was a quicker way
of gaining relevant footage rather than waiting for the event to occur naturally.

Overall, I think that our documentary film is successful at using, developing and challenging
conventions of real media products in the documentary genre. Moreover, the father of the
documentary filmmaking, John Grierson, refers to the documentary as a product primarily based on
observation; he also argued that filmmaking should play a socialising and mediating role in modern
society. Thus the observation must be, in his words, “of the changing world...the ordinary business of
life”. Our documentary, by taking a current issue and not only exploring how it can result into a social
change but also searching for a solution that would reduce any social disruption, does just this.

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