1. Comparing our documentary to
codes and conventions of
documentaries.

2. Use of Camera
We looked at various other documentaries to see how they used the the camera and understood that we
needed to film certain shots using different shot types in order to follow the conventions of the use of
camera in documentaries.
We also looked at how documentaries used the camera free-hand when filming vox-pops whereas when
filming formal interviews they used a tripod to keep the camera at a steady angle. For example when
watching Super-Size me, Morgan Spurlock would occasionally hold the camera himself while asking
passers by questions which made it look more formal and relatable to the audience, but when he was
talking to doctors and health specialists he would have the camera in one position during the whole
interview. During vox-pops he would also use close up shots of the interviewee whereas during the formal
interviews it would generally be a medium shot in which you were able to see office work/computers in
the background.
After looking at Super-Size Me and other documentaries such as Super-Size vs. Super-Skinny I came to
realise that the use of camera was generally the same so when we were filming our own formal and
informal interviews we followed the conventions such as free hand camera and close up shots during vox-
pops and a medium shot for interviews where the person being interviewed tended to have a computer
behind them with office work laid out.

3. Sound
During my research I watched documentaries about similar serious issues that had the same target audience, to get
a feel of what the audience would be interested in. I watched a few documentaries from channel 4 and YouTube
about anorexia as they are as serious as cyber bullying and when watching them I looked for the background
music that was used in different parts of the documentary. For example, the whole way through the documentary
there would be a constant sound in the background fading in an out when appropriate and during certain serious
moments the sound would dramatically change, suggesting the shot was significant. We used these documentaries
to help us follow the codes and conventions by finding a track that would suit our serious style of music. We
chose a slow track that would fade in and out constantly during the five minutes and we choose a more upbeat
track to occasionally come in during vox-pops and interviews.

4. Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is a common term in media which shows that in most documentaries, certain things are placed to
make the shot look more professional. A still image from Super-Size me next to one from our documentary shows how
we have followed the codes and conventions of the rule of thirds, with the captions both in the bottom left corner and
the interviewee edging towards the right with the office in the background to the left. After watching various
documentaries I noticed how all of them used the rule of thirds, hence why we decided to use it in our documentary to
make it look more formal and professional.

5. Editing
When looking at other documentaries it is clear that a lot of editing
is done in order for the documentary to flow properly and a lot of
transitions are made when going from one shot to another. We used
fading throughout or documentary to make ours also flow properly.
When watching Embarrassing Bodies I seen that they blurred some
shots out of focus as they were coming in and out of different shots
to make it smoother, however we did not use this method when
editing our documentary.

6. Magazine Article
The articles
Selection of both contain
images to break four columns
up the page
Big bold headlines
Same font used throughout
Captions in the corner of the
pictures
By lines

7. Radio Trailer
When making our radio trailer we listened to radio trailers to see how they were laid out in order to
get ideas for how we could make our own. After listening to different genres of radio trailers we noted
that all of them lasted from around 30 seconds - 50 seconds, they all had a background track, and
majority had a main voiceover and a separate, more formal one at the end which gave the relevant
information such as what channel it would be shown on. They also used short clips from the
documentaries/programmes they were advertising. When making our radio trailer we also had two
people speaking with one at the end saying it would be on BBC £ and saying the title of our
documentary, we also used the background music that we used within our documentary to link the two
pieces together, and our documentary also lasted 30 seconds, within the conventions of radio trailers.
We included short clips of some of the informal interviews in our radio trailer.

8. Conclusion
Overall, I think we used all of the
conventions of a documentary, radio
trailer and magazine articles and
tried to follow them as much as
possible in order to make our forms
of media seem as professional as
they could. We did not go against
any of the codes and conventions
and did not challenge any either.