1. A2 Media Studies
Evaluation
Samena Khan 5255

2. Brief
MAIN TASK
An extract from a new documentary TV
programme, lasting approximately five minutes
ANCILLARY 1
a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused
on the documentary;
ANCILLARY 2
a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
DOCUMENTARY
I was required to make one main
task and two ancillaries. My main
task was to construct a five minute
extract from a documentary. This
documentary followed the life of a
teenager with cancer and would be
called 'Living with Teenage
Cancer'.
Audiences will be able to follow the life of Maya a teenager suffering from
leukaemia trying to complete a list of things that she has always wanted to do,
also known as events from her bucket list. Some of these events include going to
Spain and to go sky diving.

4. DOCUMENTARY CODES AND CONVENTIONS
For my main task two whole documentaries were analysed individually and a group
analysis was conducted. When analysing the documentaries certain areas I concentrated
on were concept/ content, audiences, codes and conventions, music and sound and
finally mise-en-scene. The two documentaries which I individually analysed were The Boy
who can‟t forget and The World‟s Oldest Teenager. My group analysis was on the
documentary The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off. These documentaries were chosen as they
revolved around one main protagonist which is similar to the type of documentary I am
making. Through watching these documentaries many conventions were found which I
either applied to my documentary or did not follow.

5. In two of the documentaries which I analysed the voice over
was done by the actual main protagonist or partly done by
them making the show more personalized The audience felt
as though they actually know the main protagonist therefore I
wanted this similar feeling in my documentary. The use of
interviews are also prevalent in documentaries in order to
make the audience think about the content and gain insight
into others opinions. Through the use of voiceovers in
documentaries I watched, the individual would give
information through the insight of the protagonist and be able
to hear the protagonists personal thoughts. We decided to use
our protagonist for our voiceover in order to remind the
audience of Maya‟s young age. Ultimately this documentary is
showing cancers disregard for young age as well as showing
Maya‟s innocence and that at such a young age she is still able
to have a positive outlook on her life.

6. The use of interviews was prevalent in my research and I found that in the documentaries which
I analysed individuals who either experienced a similar situation of were a part of the same
situation were interviewed in order to show audiences the experiences of different people. I
used this convention of interviews in my documentary but manipulated it to add a unique twist
whereby individuals representative of our target audience of teenagers were stopped and
asked to give their options on two questions. These were “If you were Maya what would you do
for your bucket list?” and “If you were in Maya‟s position what would you do?” this last
questions is refereeing to the fact that Maya has undergone treatment once already which was
unsuccessful, she addressed her thought in the documentary on whether or not she should
continue treatment. In order to make our audience think more about a situation which most of
them may not have undergone interviews were placed in the documentary. I also made sure to
stick to the convention of the person being interview not looking directly into the camera but
rather the side where essentially the interviewer should be present.

7. Below are screenshots of my interviews from my documentary in comparison to
existing documentaries such as “The boy who can‟t forget” and „The world‟s oldest
teenager”. As evident I have used codes and conventions from existing media
products in order to put across and opinion and inform audiences.
MY PRODUCT EXISTING PRODUCTS

8. • The main purpose of a documentary is to
inform, in the documentaries I watched there
were many facts and figures given to the
audience to inform them of something or to
reinforce a certain view. I included this
convention in my documentary by giving my
viewers facts about teenage cancer and other
aspects of cancer such as hair
loss, increased amount of medication which
must be consumed as well as others
to emphasise the disregard for age that
cancer has. These facts were written on plain
black in white font. The text was large enough
to be seen clearly and was made sure to be
kept on the screen for a decent amount of
time. Facts were either about Maya and her
life such as “Maya has been diagnosed with
cancer from the age of 16” or they were facts
about teenage cancer such as “Leukaemia is
the most common form of cancer in young
people.” This was done to establish a link
between the character and the issue and
regularly reminds the audience of the link. In
existing media products however these facts
were usually said in the voiceover. I decided
not to do this as I felt that sometimes
audiences may miss what is being said in the
voiceover and felt it was better for facts to
appear on the screen.

9. Finally I found that extreme close ups were present a lot of the time in
documentaries in order to emphasise certain aspects of the mise-en-scene to
make the audience think or feel something. In the documentary “The World‟s
Oldest Teenager” extreme close ups of a birthday cake and the main
characters childish handwriting emphasises her young age and shows a
strong contrast between the protagonist‟s psychical appearance which is an
aged individual to her actual inner self of a normal 13 year old who is still a
child but due to such a life threatening disease she has had to grown up faster.
Similarly in my documentary an extreme close up of a guitar and harry potter
books were shown to show Maya‟s hobbies and interests through the use of
mise-en-scene making her seem relatable to the audience as well s young was
followed by a shot medicine on a bedside table to emphasise the fact that my
main protagonist Maya is very ill and requires a lot of medicine in order to
maintain her health which is usually expected of older people however she is
still very young and very ill. Ultimately there is a surprise felt by the audience
causing interest to be gained. A comparism of extreme close ups present in
my product and existing products is present in the next slide.

10. MY PRODUCT EXISTING PRODUCTS

11. Conventions were also challenged in my documentary through the use of some shots
being hand held. The shakiness of the shots was utilized in order to show the audience
that it is in Maya (the protagonists) point of view. I wanted to do this because my target
audience are teenagers just like the main protagonist, therefore using this point of view
shot emphasises the fact that she is the same age as the audience. The audience are
able to see strong similarities between themselves and the protagonists and are able to
see that anyone can get cancer. Although hand held shots were use in existing media
products they were not in first person view. Handheld shots such as those in “The Boy
Whose Skin Fell Off” were mainly used due to the movement of the individuals rather
than intentionally. Instead I decided to make these shots in first person view as not only
did it make it more interesting and unique to watch, the fact that I challenged the
conventions would gather even more of an interest. These hand held shots of Maya
walking into her house are examples of what our hand held shots looked like.

12. The final convention which was challenged was through the main title. In
the documentaries I found that the main title was usually in a very
simple font which faded in which is what I was initially going to
do. However due to the fact that my target audience was teenagers I felt
that just having the titles fade in would be too plain and not catch the
target audience interest. I decided to use stop motion on the main title
and have the titles being spelled out on a scrabble board. This was
appealing to the eye an interesting, inventive way of showing the title to
the audience. The audience immediately become interested through
the title and how its is displayed.

13. Research into different types of documentary modes led me to Bill Nichols
theory on different styles of documentaries. Each style of documentary had its
own sets of codes and conventions. I decided that our documentary would be a
participatory documentary as it allows the filmmaker and the protagonist to
interact with each other. This is why I included the aspect of the main
protagonist narrating the documentary as it is as though the protagonist is
talking to the audience and guiding the filmmaker with her through her journey
breaking the „fourth wall‟. A relationship is established between the filmmaker
and the protagonist as the protagonist is able to easily display her thoughts to
the filmmaker.

14. • TV LISTINGS DOUBLE PAGE
• For my TV listings double page I looked at existing products from the
magazine „Radiotimes‟ and analysed different double page spreads which
advertised documentaries. The two double pages which I individually
analysed were on the documentaries „Alesha Dixon: Don‟t Hit my
Mum‟ and „Take That: Look Back Don‟t Stare‟. Our group analysis was on
a double page for the programme „One Born Every Minute‟

15. A number of conventions were found between these double pages. In
all three of these media texts there is a large image of the main
protagonists dominating either one side of the double page, 2/3 of
the double page or it is the majority of the double page. On this image
there are usually captions of extra information as well as a quote
from the main protagonist. The text in the article is laid out in column
form with quotes from the texts said by the protagonist‟ being
enlarged to emphasise a particular point. The title of the article is
usually a quote from the interview with the protagonist and there is
always a sentence underneath introducing the programme. When
beginning a new paragraph the first letter of the first sentence is
enlarged. The final convention I found between all the texts were that
before the article started the name of the programme as well as the
date, time and channel it would air on is written at the beginning of
the article in small font. For this task I stuck to all the conventions of
the double page.

16. • I decided to have the large image to only be on the second
half of the double page and be of the main protagonist
walking through a park. However this image would not
show her face due to her wish of remaining anonymous. I
challenged the conventions by adding some colour to the
text as we found that in my research all the text was all one
colour. The colour we chose was orange as this was the
colour of the leukaemia ribbon just as pink is for breast
cancer. The quotes which were enlarged and the sentence
underneath the title are all orange which also catches
my target audiences eyes if they happen to skim through
the magazine. Audiences will also stop and read this and
„The Radiotimes‟ is usually targeted at an older audience
therefore there is often a lack of colour however when they
see the orange they will stop. Finally I also challenged the
conventions by adding three more images on the other
page of events from her bucket list. By doing this audience
are able to see what great things that Maya will achieve in
this documentary and will feel compelled to watch it.

17. • I decided to have the large image to only be on the second
half of the double page and be of the main protagonist
walking through a park. However this image would not
show her face due to her wish of remaining anonymous. I
challenged the conventions by adding some colour to the
text as we found that in my research all the text was all one
colour. The colour we chose was orange as this was the
colour of the leukemia ribbon just as pink is for breast
cancer. The quotes which were enlarged and the sentence
underneath the title are all orange which also catches
my target audiences eyes if they happen to skim through
the magazine. Audiences will also stop and read this and
„The Radiotimes‟ is usually targeted at an older audience
therefore there is often a lack of colour however when they
see the orange they will stop. Finally I also challenged the
conventions by adding three more images on the other
page of events from her bucket list. By doing this audience
are able to see what great things that Maya will achieve in
this documentary and will feel compelled to watch it.

18. • NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT
• For my research on existing newspaper advertisements for documentaries it
was very difficult to conduct a list of codes and conventions mainly due to the
fact that I was not able to find any existing adverts for documentaries. I
conducted research on other newspaper adverts and analysed size, colour and
what kind of information was on this. Through analysis of my three different
adverts (Jazz Festival & London 2012 Vitamin Water) a list of possible
conventions were created these included bright colours to attract the audience
(or use of house colours), when and where the show would be airing and what it
would be about. Three main sizes I found in newspaper advertisements were
narrow vertical ones at the bottom of newspapers, square advertisements and
tall horizontal advertisements. I decided to choose a tall horizontal
advertisement as we wanted to include a portrait image of the protagonist. My
newspaper advert also had the house colours of orange which is present
throughout all three tasks.