1. It is very important to challenge and follow real media products as following the right codes and conventions will benefit both your product and the audience. For our media product we created a 5 minute extract of a documentary about any topic of our choice. Me and my group members gathered so many different ideas which we thought will win success and finally came up with the idea ‘Sex, teens and std’s’. Furthermore after research and planning we thought our documentary subject was too broad and decided to narrow it down so that our documentary will be asking questions such as “ is it right for young people to be receiving contraception between the age of 13 -15? ‘. As a group we decided that our possible broadcaster could be BBC THREE, therefore we tried to follow the codes and conventions similar to theirs. For example in figure you can see that they the BBC THREE logo is present in every frame we tried to follow these conventions as it follows the conventions of a real media product.<br />FIGURE 1<br />Our voiceover used the conventions of a real media product as we used a formal and impressionable person to record our voice over and this highlighted the importance of the facts included in the voiceover. If we had taken a different unconventional approach, then our documentary wouldn’t have been as successful or as appealing to our audience. Also the use of a female voiceover in our documentary allows the subject matter to be interpreted with sympathy, calmness and also more inviting than a male voice, as the subject is a very sympathetic matter. Another point will be that we followed real media conventions as whilst the voice over is talking, there are statistics being shown according to what she is saying (shown in figure 2). This is part of the Bill Nichols theory which was in the expository mode he believes that there should be an informative narrator in a documentary so that the audience will follow, which is what we have done. <br />FIGURE 2 A voiceover is used here to introduce our documentary. The voiceover explains what the graphics are saying and vice versa<br /> Nancy-youth worker works with young people, another opinionJason McDougal who is a father will have a strong opinion as he is a father of a 13 year old.Natalie keen who is a sexual health advisor. Has a wide knowledge of contraception.FIGURE 3<br />As the director and as a group a lot of time, effort and consideration was taken, when selecting our interviewees as we had to choose people that had relevance to our documentary. We also needed a variety of opinions as well as people that will inform the audience about our subject matter ‘contraception and sex’. Our documentary included speakers such as youth workers, sexual health advisor, YPF friendly representatives, vicars and also parents. We choose these ranges of people as they would obviously have a wide knowledge of the subject and a variety of opinions that the audience could relate to whether for or against. Above in figure 3 are some of the speakers we had in our documentary.<br /> Cutaway of school kids. As the documentary is to do with young people.The images shown below in figure 4 are cutaways we used. Cutaways were an essential part of our documentary as it allowed our documentary to flow. Cutaways were used over interviewees to illustrate what they were talking about more clearly. I feel the cutaways used in our documentary make it more engaging and interactive with the audience. We had cutaways such as school kids, posters about sex, contraception and many more.<br /> FIGURE 4 A cutaway of condoms. In relation with contraception<br /> Cutaway of different types of contraception<br /> Cutaway of a poster about sex education.<br />Sound is one of the key elements to any production. In our documentary sound plays an important role, especially non digetic. The use of non digetic sound keeps the documentary exciting as documentaries tend to become tedious after a while. The use of non digetic sound gives our documentary a sense of continuity, and makes it easier for are audience to stay interested.<br />We followed the conventions of a real media product as we took into consideration visual codes which include mise en scene, such as props, location and costume. Below in figure 5 and 6 are screen shots of our documentary showing how we used mise on scene appropriately. It’s always good to allow the mise en scene to have relevance with your subject matter; it gives your documentary or product sense of realism.<br />The location and props in the background of the frame shows that Natalie Keen is in her office. The use of the props and the poster on the wall emphasizes her role as a sexual health advisor.<br /> FIGURE 5<br /> FIGURE 6The use of the costume emphasizes his role as a reverend, it also allows the audience to identify with him they are more likely to base an opinion if they believe he is a real reverend. Also the location (church) also gives a sense of realism.<br />Framing was another thing that needed to be filmed very accurately, to ensure this the rule of thirds was used when trying to achieve a perfect framing as shown in figure 7 below. Cinematography is essential in any media production. In our documentary it was important when filming footage as we wanted the audience to be able to stay engaged throughout our documentary. The use of effects and transitions between each shot makes the documentary look more interesting and creative; this again gives a sense of continuity and flow, not just moving from one frame to another.<br /> FIGURE 6An example of good framing. Rule of thirds was employed.<br />