Within my documentary rather than choosing one particular documentary mode I challenged each mode. Whilst doing that I created my own and developed the documentary mode as I saw weaknesses in most of them and the mode didnt quite fit with the genre of my documentary. This in turn enhanced my creativity skills as I used aspects of different modes known as an eclectic approach similar to the aim of the performative documentary mode as it uses various elements of different documentary modes. In my documentary I used aspects of the interactive documentary mode this was used in the form of the actors engagin more directly with the audience. I challenged the conventions of documentary modes with no useof interview however I developed this as the actors spoke about their inspirations to the audience rather than through a standard interview between two people.
One of the important codes and conventions of a documentary is the framing of actors when speaking. It has been noted that the actor or interviewee should either be framed on the left or right hand and should not be looking directly at the camera. Within my documentary I used this framing for my male actor at times when he was talking about his daily schedule however I challenged this as it wasnt through the close up shot but I used a medium shot which would be less intimidating for the viewers watching. In addition I developed the framing throughtout my documentary this was evidently shown in the other males shot as he looked directly at the camera this was done as a way to create versimilitude from the real world and the diegetic world that was present in the documentary. This framing showed interaction between the actor and the audience which would result to the positive stereotype of teenagers as Perkins (1979) noted that stereotypes can also be good and positive to the audience. In addition within the codes and conventions the close up shot of actors are usuaaly framed in a dark area to suggest the serious matter of the topic. However in my documentary all the actors were framed in a natural setting to suggest a depiction of reality rather than the audience viewing it as a constructed piece, although in theory it is. The use of a bright background was used in order to to connote youthfulness throughout the documentary as the main purpose of the documentary was to challenge the representation of teenagers in the media.
Another convention of documentary is graphics which come in different formats I used this element through the use of a title however I challenged the conventions by not adding credits at the end of the documentary. I didnt do the credits because it wouldnt resemble reali life situations but would imply that the people involved are similaer to the actors in soap operas such as Eastenders and Hollyoaks.
Also the graphics within the documentary which states the persons name and occupation is always positioned underneath the picture of the interviewee preferably at the bottom of the screen so it doesnt distract the audience from the actors face. Although the graphics are vital so the audience knows who is speaking, I didnt use them as I thought it looked too formal. This convention wouldnt allow me to portray teenagers in the way I wanted as I wanted a balance between an informal and formal as it would give for a realistic portrayal. Although graphics are shown on "reality" documentaries I thought it best suited documentaries focusing upon crime and forensic detectives. Within documentaries an essential code and convention is the use of cutaways this allows for the narrative to flow well and also so the transitions flow from one shot to the next. The cutaway was used in my documentary as it allowed the audience to follow the narrative of each of the actors and also make connections to each of the actors. In order to develop my creativity skills I used a cutaway during the voice over of the male actor whilst he was in the gym. Also as my documentary mode was an expository documentary it was vital I wasnt shown whilst filming. However when filming the male actor I failed to use a cutaway when I was shown in the video which was a weakness as the framing looked unprofessional.
In my documentary I made sure in each shot the mise en scene reflected the topic of discussion in my documentary. I thought this was important as the mise en scene feels the viewer a lot which allows for these signifiers to be interpreted differently by the viewers. With this in mind I made sure that all my shots of the actors were shot in classroms and had school equiptments within the framing. Also the mise en scene taken when Anita was being shot outside gave for a light, happy and peaceful atmosphere as it was sunny. I wanted the portrayal of teenagers to be realistic therefore I made sure that they wore clothing that they were comfortable in. One of the male actors wore sports attire with jogging bottoms and a jumper which represented those teenagers that play sport or comfortable in wearing sports clothing. On the other hand the female actor was dressed modestly in a black coat and jeans. It was important for the actors to wear clothes that they would wear in a daily basis as it enables the viewer for a personal look into the lives of these teenagers. Therefore their clothing in the documentary is stereotypical of their roles in society.
Another convention of documentary is graphics which come in different formats I used this element through the use of a title however I challenged the conventions by not adding credits at the end of the documentary. I didnt do the credits because it wouldnt resemble real life situations but would imply that the people involved are similar to the actors in soap operas such as Eastenders and Hollyoaks.
Also the graphics within the documentary which states the persons name and occupation is always positioned underneath the picture of the interviewee preferably at the bottom of the screen so it doesnt distract the audience from the actors face. Although the graphics are vital so the audience knows who is speaking, I didnt use them as I thought it looked too formal. This convention wouldnt allow me to portray teenagers in the way I wanted as I wanted a balance between an informal and formal as it would give for a realistic portrayal. Although graphics are shown on "reality" documentaries I thought it best suited documentaries focusing upon crime and forensic detectives. Within documentaries an essential code and convention is the use of cutaways this allows for the narrative to flow well and also so the transitions flow from one shot to the next. The cutaway was used in my documentary as it allowed the audience to follow the narrative of each of the actors and also make connections to each of the actors. In order to develop my creativity skills I used a cutaway during the voice over of the male actor whilst he was in the gym. Also as my documentary mode was an expository documentary it was vital I wasnt shown whilst filming. However when filming the male actor I failed to use a cutaway when I was shown in the video which was a weakness as the framing looked unprofessional.
In my documentary I made sure in each shot the mise en scene reflected the topic of discussion in my documentary. I thought this was important as the mise en scene feels the viewer a lot which allows for these signifiers to be interpreted differently by the viewers. With this in mind I made sure that all my shots of the actors were shot in classroms and had school equiptments within the framing. Also the mise en scene taken when Anita was being shot outside gave for a light, happy and peaceful atmosphere as it was sunny. I wanted the portrayal of teenagers to be realistic therefore I made sure that they wore clothing that they were comfortable in. One of the male actors wore sports attire with jogging bottoms and a jumper which represented those teenagers that play sport or comfortable in wearing sports clothing. By doing this I was able to use barthes semic theory as tracksuit bottoms is usually depicted as crime however I challenged this to suggest the positive step of the youth as he is interested in doing sports and succeeding in that particular field. On the other hand the female actor was dressed modestly in a black coat and jeans. It was important for the actors to wear clothes that they would wear in a daily basis as it enables the viewer for a personal look into the lives of these teenagers. Therefore their clothing in the documentary is stereotypical of their roles in society. In addition I challenged Propps idea for the 31 ways that character serves in a narrative I didnt use them as I was doing a documentary so the concept didnt apply to my work.
I also used voice overs which is part of the conventions of a documentary. It gives for a more inventive way of the actors speaking to the audience rather than speaking directly to the camera all the time. I developed the use of voice overs as it wasn't just one persons voice throughout the documentary. I used the actors voices in their individuals clip which was more personal and the viewers would also acknowledge that these teenagers are down to earth rather than having negative views of them. The voice over was important as it suggests each of the actors stories to be separate narratives and gave for in depth look at these teenagers that are defined as a collective identity in the media. I also used music however developed this aspect by varying the use of diegetic and non diegetic sound. The diegetic sound was used for introducing one of the male actors which was his original piece whilst I made use of non diegetic sound for introducing the other male actor which was evident as I used the song Drake - winner which I had to download from Itunes.
By selecting a particular theme to focus on I was using conventions as it enabled me to also establish the genre within documentaries that I wanted to focus on. I followed most of the elements of the expository style documentary this was useful as it allowed me to expose the lives of these teenagers rather than scrutinize their actions. As Fowler (1989) noted semiotically "genre can be seen as shared codes between producers and interpreters". With this in mind the exposing style enabled me to maniuplate the semiotics used suhc as the school buildings, use of computer which showed technoloy and music and the fitness gym and equiptments. All these objects allowed for the viewer to also have a shared understanding of my representation of these teenagers. In addition identifying the genre of my documentary was useful as it helped me to keep order and use most of the conventions that it used. As Neale (1980) suggested the genre used would help in shapin the values that are dominant at the time. Thsi was evident in my documentary as I wanted my documentary style to reflect how I would represent the teenagers.
My documentary has a linear narrative structure therefore I used one of Todorov's narrative structures suggesting equilibrium. I done this as it was the easiest form of narrative to understand and implement in my documentary. My product follows the codes and conventions in terms of narrative as it begins with an expository with the actors introducing themselves. The middle section can be seen as the actors speak upon their talents and the end of the narrative is shown through the discussion at th end of the documentary. I also used the idea that Levi Strauss put forward by stating that "a narrative can only end in resolution" I used this aspect which is evidently shown at the end of my video as the students have their final word on possible reasons to why teeangers are depicted in a negative way usually in the media. According to Barthes he stated that each story has a location and I used this concept in my documentary as each of the actors narrating was in a different location to show their topic of discussion that would be focused in the documentary.
Ancillary tasks:
I used the codes and conventions of newspaper advertisement whilst also developing some of them and challenging others. I used a bold central image of one of the male actors in order to create a narrative for the advert this created for suspense and also so the reader would be curious to know about the documentary without giving too much detail away. I positioned my slogan underneath the picture on the right hand side of the page so that the reader wouldnt be distracted by the writing however positioned so that they would have enough detail. By stating the scheduling time on the left and right hand side of the page enabled me to develop the conventions as I was being creative rather than being restricted due to the existing codes of documentaries. Furthermore I followed the conventions by using as little word as possible so that the reader would be intereseted and the page layout would also look more organised if the words are kept to a minimum. I used the code of positioning the channel 4 logo on the right hand side of the advert so that the readers would be familiar with the channel 4 product and also be keen to want to watch the documentary as they may have tv shows that they already watch on channel 4. I also used codes and conventions by not just publishing to one newspaper but publishing to a number such as daily mirror, the sun and daily mail.
Within the double page spread I used the code by using a colour scheme that was shown to be dominant in the magazine already. In my case I used bright colours such as orange and purple as it was similar colour scheme to the Look magazine. I used small images around the writing in order to show the page spread in the form of a diary which was developing the conventions that most magazines had. I used the standifrst in order to introduce the readers on the article and followed the convention by positioning it underneath the headline so it was easy for the reader to understand what the article was about. I used a drop capital in the opening of my article so that the reader would know where to start reading from. I didn't want the first paragraph to be in bold font or have bigger type size so I challenged them as I wanted the article to flow rather than having one paragraoh to stand out as it didnt make sense as to why that should be. The headline that I used was centred around my topic so I developed this convention as I found a headline that was catchy yet focused on the topic of my documentary. Although the magazine is informal I made use of a byline so that it would make it look quite professional. I also made use of a strapline however was not positioned at the top of the page but on the side of the page and written vertically similar to the convention of the LOOK magazine. For the page numbering I also used the code by writing the number on the side of the page with the magazine website next to it. Through my research I found that the look magazine rarely centre the double page spreads on teenagers but rather focus on celebrity lifestyle or high street clothing so I challenged the conventions by having my double page spread focus on teenagers.
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