Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of exisitng media products?

1. Question 1- In what ways does your
media product use, develop or
challenge codes and conventions of
real media products?
Documentaries
Hayden Atkins

2. Our preliminary work on
documentaries:
SuperSize Me
• Since the start of the A2 media course, we have watched many documentaries in an attempt to grasp the
features that they contain, and use them ourselves, with the final aim of being able to create a
documentary that emulates a real life one.
• It was also important for us to understand the documentary genres, and the features that are specific to
different genres. For example, in Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me, it contains lots of close ups, mainly to
show expression, particularly when Morgan is disgusted with something, or when there is a particular
reaction that he wants us to see.
• For example, here are three mid shots taken directly from the documentary. They are three close ups that
show us the in-your-face nature of the documentary Spurlock is trying to produce. This would be
different, for example, from a documentary that is targeting young children, where the graphic close ups
aren’t needed.

3. Our preliminary work on
documentaries:
Fire + Rescue
• However in Fire and rescue for example, the features to do with editing for example would be different in
comparison to Supersize me, because it is targeting an entirely different audience, in a totally different genre.
In Fire and Rescue, there is a lot of fast paced editing, to replicate the fast paced situations that firemen need
to react to. This also reflects the target audience, fast, high octane action would be targeting a younger age
group, rather than elderly people for example.
For example, here is 5 seconds of
footage, in stills, to see the
montage styled editing that is
very fast paced:
As shown above, in just five seconds of footage, we see a fire engine coming out of the station, back into the
station, and a side on shot of the engine. This reflects the needs of the target audience- by ensuring the editing
is fast paced and exciting.

4. Documentary
• Before starting the making of the documentary, we decided that we wanted to follow codes and
conventions of existing documentaries, whilst also adding in our own features, that we believed we
relevant to our genre and audience- Health and fitness and teenagers between the ages of 16-24.
• By using existing codes and conventions, it would allow us to emulate some of the features used on a real
life documentary. We decided we would add things like interviews , for example, so that our product
looked genuine and professional.
• During our planning and research, we decided that it would be very beneficial to examine existing
documentaries, and look at the features they contain, so that we could include these in our work.
• Prominent examples of existing documentaries that featured on our broadcast channel (BBC 3) was
“World’s strictest parents”. Whilst we also looked in depth at a documentary that looked at the same
genre as us, “Supersize Me”.
• I have looked at various aspects of both of these documentaries, and we have tried to emulate some of
the conventions and codes that they have portrayed, to try and make our product seem as realistic as
possible.

5. Use of graphics/images
• It is a key convention of nearly all health and fitness documentaries to use disturbing, graphical images to
portray the problem of obesity. One of the ways in which documentary producers do this is to use images
of obese people, often combined with facts, showing the risk of obesity. This graphic is used ins supersize
me, to demonstrate the size of the problem. For example, in this photograph, we have a long shot of an
obese man. The long shot allows productors to include all of the mans body, highlighting the obesity in
more detail, providing us with more graphical content.
• However, we also do this. We have used the same effect here in our documentary to obtain the same kind
of shocking effect, like supersize me have done.
Supersize me visual Our visual

6. Use of interview
• It is a key convention of nearly all T.V documentaries to show interviews. Interviews allow the documenter
to involve external views in their documentary, normally through field/industry experts.
• Using the documentary Fault Lines, Fast foods, fat profits, we looked at their use of interview, and the
conventions that are generally associated with them . We saw that whenever an interview was held, the
subject of the interview was looking across the dead space- a key code of all interviews. Because of
this, we decided that this would be a good convention to follow. Here are the results.
Fault lines documentary Our documentary interview

7. Use of interview
Props
Also included in the conventions of interview is the use of props. The use of props is vital in
constructing a realistic, genuine interview with someone from the field that you want to talk about.
They help set up the ambience of the interview, and influence the realness of the interview.
Here is our interview side
by side with an interview
conducted in Supersize me.
As you can see, the use of
props features in both. In
our interview, we have a
pair of boxing gloves and a
health drink, (green tea)
appropriately placed in the
left third of the interview.
Similarly, in the background
of the supersize me
interview, there is some
stationary
equipment, things you
would expect to se in the
office of a professor. The
Use of props props enhance the Use of props
authenticity of the person
working in their respective

8. Use of Interview
Costume
Here is our field expert dressed in
costume that you would associate with
his job- sports In our documentary, we ensured that our field
experts that we interviewed were dressed in
clothing that our audience would associate them
in on a day to day basis. There was no point in
interviewing the P.E specialist if he was dressed as
a clown, there is no relevance. This is an
important code of all documentaries, as it is
something that the viewer looks for in an attempt
to easily identify the field that the person works
in.
Here is an example from the existing
documentary, Supersize me. The field expert is
dressed in a lab coat, and this instantly makes
him recognisable as a doctor or something in the
medical field. It increases the authenticity of the
interview.

9. Use of Interview
Vox Pops
Vox Pops are otherwise know as “street
interviews” and are designed to give short
snippets of interviews, normally to give a brief
opinion on something. They are often
casual, and don’t observe rule of
thirds, costume or props- they normally just
give an unbiased opinion
Vox Pop from our
documentary, the fitness
Supersize Me Vox Pop and health crisis

10. Use of text
• Another key component of many interviews conducted in T.V documentaries is the use of
captions, primarily to introduce the interviewee. They give an easy on screen visual to interview the
person, and are a very handy tool in the interview. As shown in the example below, the caption introduces
the interviewees name, and normally their profession. In our documentary we use captions to introduce
our two interviewees, fitness instructor Harriett Fowler, and PE teacher Gavin Sheaperd.
Fault Lines documentary Our documentary caption

11. Typical filming components
• In hundreds of documentaries, there are examples of different shots used whilst filming. We included
these types of shots in our documentary:
• Establishing shot:
• Mid shot
• Long shot Mid Shot
• Use of pan
• Use of Zoom
Use of pan

12. Use of special effects
• Special effects were something that we wanted to include in our documentary. Having looked in particular
at the use of blur, in existing documentaries, we thought that the use of blur was effective in slightly
distorting the footage so that the target audience focus on the voiceover. Also we thought that blur was
effective in blurring the background so that the viewers focus more on the people.
Here are two uses of blur in our documentary. The first is a
blurred panoramic shot of Solihull. We have sped it up by 100
to emulate the effects of a busy town. This is useful for
discussing facts in the voiceover, as it gives the audience
something visually to see, and it also gives them an
impression of the place where we are filming our
documentary.
The second use of blur is right at the end of the documentary.
Blur can also be used to “finish” something. We used the blur
in the last shot of the college as almost an ending
note, something that we found effective.

13. Use of the rule of thirds
In our documentary, we decided to use the
convention of rule of thirds, especially during the
conduction of our interviews.
As you can see, our conducted interview
observes the rule of thirds, to an extent. It
is not perfect, but our interviewee is
situated more or less in the left third
whilst the appropriately placed mise-en-
scene is in the right two thirds, so she is
looking across the space, another
convention observed in documentary.

14. Codes and Conventions that we chose
not to follow:
Archival Footage
There were a number of codes and conventions that we chose not to follow in our
documentary, but this does not mean we haven’t researched them. For example archival footage.
It is a big feature found in many existing documentaries, and we chose not to follow it for a number
of reasons.
• Firstly, we found that we did not need found footage. Found footage is often used in
documentaries when you can't film something yourself. For example, in the documentary “102
minutes that changed America”, there is found footage of the aeroplane hitting the
towers, because it is an event that cannot be found now. In our documentary, we found that all
of our footage covered the themes and ideas we wanted to discuss, and we are happy with the
outcome without the found footage.
The footage of the 9/11
attacks is archival footage
that obviously cannot be
recorded

15. Summary
• Overall, we were very happy with the outcomes of our documentary. I believe that we
followed existing codes and conventions constructively, and have created a genuine looking
product.
• There are a number of reasons why I think we have accomplished this. The first is because of
our in-depth research and planning. We spent many hours looking at existing products, and
observing the features they use. We looked at documentaries such as Fire and
Rescue, World’s strictest Parents and Supersize Me in an attempt to gain good knowledge on
codes and conventions that these directors have used when filming to create a genuine
product
• Secondly I think we accomplished the task by bearing in mind these features whilst filming. It
is one thing to research these techniques and say we are going to use them, but actually
considering them whilst filming is something we did well. We said to ourselves during the
interviews, “is the use of props right” and “is the rule of thirds being observed here?”. I think
through answering these questions whilst filming, we followed the codes and conventions of
existing products to a good standard.