Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Using YouTube for my final media product to be presented on is something that fits the conventions of everyday media products- YouTube is something used for many professional companies as a distributor, and so by using this as a media platform for my ancillary texts and documentary I have automatically got myself onto the same level as other creators. Right at the beginning of the documentary, there is an ident which I have made. This fits the conventions of any sorts of real media products, because they contain an ident, as these make the film unique and make the audience able to distinguish between which company has made the product. By making this ident and putting it right at the beginning, it gives the documentary an air of professionalism because it shows that it fits in with normal conventions of films. An example of an ident would be at the start of a 21st century fox film when the iconic part plays with the statue. This is something easily distinguishable, and I believe this is a good way to start the documentary because it fits the conventions of a real media product, such as a real documentary made by the BBC. Having the sound in the background at the start also makes it easily distinguishable, and this makes it seem more unique. The sound is quite lighthearted, which shows the genre of the film, which is something that establishes right at the start of the documentary. I also started the documentary with introducing one of the main people within the documentary, as they are what would be a 'protagonist' within a normal film, although it is slightly different as it is a documentary.
My final ancillary products of a magazine or newspaper double page spread and advertisement for my documentary fit with the usual conventions- using my extensive research into advertisements and magazine covers for documentaries, I used the key conventions to make my ancillary products fit the conventions that I have conducted research into. This involves conventions such as having column-style writing within the documentary to fit with the conventions of the column-style typography usually associated with double page spreads. I have made the double page spread fold in the middle of the focal image which challenges conventions of real media products. I have done this because I believe it will make the audience focus on the shops around the outside of the character in the photo, reinforcing the genre of being a social documentary.
After this, in the documentary, it cuts straight to a shot of one of the characters within the documentary being asked a question. This is conventionality, as usually with a documentary it goes straight into it. It starts with a simple question, as usually in a documentary it will start with something fairly simple, in order to get the audience into it lightly and get them interested. This documentary film also fits conventions of interviews, because every social documentary, whether long or short, that I evaluated at the start of my A2 blog, included some form of an interview. We included some various angles, as this keeps it interesting and is something you often see within a documentary, in a real media product.
Within the documentary, I included some plain background shots, and input some titles and put statistics within the film. This, within a documentary, is usually spoken as a voice over in the background. I decided to challenge this convention because I believe that putting a simple fact as something that can be read by the audience provides a nice difference between listening to the voices in the background of the film and also reading the statistics. I believe this is a more effective method of delivering information because it provides a difference to the usual voice-overs that the audience have to listen to, and it also means that they can listen to the background music, which is more likely to be entertaining than a voice-over.
The documentary continuously cuts from interview clips to other shots, which include ones around a shopping centre and some other plain ones which are used as the background to statistics. I believe that this fits usual conventions of a documentary, because a variety of information is administered in the form of typography such as statistics and credits, and also in the form of the main characters given answers to the questions asked. This fits the conventions of a documentary, because the whole purpose of a documentary is to inform its viewers on something. So, in that manner, this documentary fits the conventions of being informative in more than one way. I did this through a vareiety of software programmes, such as live-type, Photoshop, and the programme which I actually edited the film on, Premier Pro. With the angles, I have tried to use a range of different angles in order to fit in with conventions of providing different angles and insights within a documentary. The interview shots I have kept head on, and close-up as this provides a sense of it being personal without being too intrusive. This is something present within most nature documentaries, as if they are showing the home of an animal, such as a BBC documentary with David Attenborough, they provide enough information to keep the audience curious but not enough to seem intrusive upon personal lives of either animals or humans.
The lighting within this documentary is always fairly bright, as this keeps the mood of the documentary mellow. This fits the conventions of most documentaries being open books, as they are informative and the lighting sets a light mood on the documentary. The outfits within this documentary were picked by the people starring in it, because I think that helps to reinforce the genre of being a social documentary about fashion, and the people being interviewed are more likely to feel comfortable and open up more if they are in their own choice of clothing. This goes with archetypes of conventions, because the purpose of a documentary is to make people feel comfortable enough to open up and reveal more information.
The non-diegetic soundtrack in the background is very upbeat, which matches the conventions of the documentary because the tone of it is very relaxed and happy, and I have attempted to create a relaxed atmosphere by the music. The statistics done through the course of the video have been done to provide some sort of a narrative- as the documentary goes on, it gets more in-depth, and this is something found in most social documentaries: it starts shallow, and gets deeper through the course of the documentary.
For my ancillary product, I have used various types of media platforms such as Photoshop and power-point by Microsoft. These are software programmes that are used by professional companies, so by using this for my ancillary product this provides a comparison with everyday media texts.
Overall, there are many ways in which I think my documentary has both challenged and fitted certain conventions of real documentaries; including the sound, editing, mise en scene and camera angles and shots. The vast array of shots keeps it interesting and helps to give more of an insight, the edits have been done fairly basically in order to keep the video as raw and natural as possible, in order to keep it in line with real media products and keep it realistic. The mise en scene including outfits and makeup were chosen by the interviewees and the people in the shots, because again I believed this would provide more of a realistic approach towards social situations, which is something most social documentaries (real media products) should contain.