Mehak Hussain Evaluation Activity 1

Evaluation Activity 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For this task I will be analyzing the way in which my documentary uses the typical
forms and conventions of documentaries. There are a number of forms and
conventions that consist within this category:
Narrative and concept of documentaries
Reconstructions of scenes
The technicalities that encourage realism through a documentary
Interviews with experts
Real-life footage
Shaped realism
Archive footage/stills
Visual coding
Sound
Voiceover
Text and titles used
- Narrative And Concept Of Documentaries
There are many forms of documentaries, poetic, expository, observational,
participatory, performative and reflexive, which is the style we had chosen to
explore. The idea of a reflexive documentary is to reconstruct the reality of
something that some of the audience may be aware of but doesnt have
experience in. Our documentary looked at online dating, and the dangers that
may come with using it. Due to the fact that our documentary would be split into
3 separate parts, thus the motive of the first part is to introduce the topic to a
point where the audiences have already begun to develop a sophisticated and
critical attitude. To make this happen, our documentary provides positive and
negative experiences from public figures through interviews and offers some
advice on how to keep safe, allowing the audience to gain a better insight into the
possible dangers that come with online dating and how they may be addressed. I
feel that our media product demonstrates a clear, unbiased introductory and
therefore, uses this form and convention substantially.
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Reconstructions Or Set-ups Of Scenes

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Mehak Hussain Evaluation Activity 1

Through the course of our production, we found that a particular challenge we
faced was gathering interviewees who were comfortable to share their
experiences on camera. Hence why we resorted to actors reenacting experiences
and scenarios that we gave them from research and had asked them to improvise
their emotions and actions while talking about it. The reason we did this was
because we didnt want the interviews to seem rehearsed or fabricated for that
matter. However this does not mean that all interviews used within our
documentary hadnt been specious, for example: Monas interview, despite the
fact that we needed to re-film her interview a second time to gain more
information and footage about how she used the site, it had been honest. This
convention was therefore used in the sense of recreating realities. The use of this
convention can also be identified through some cutaways used, mainly where we

felt it was necessary. These were intentionally set-up for audience pleasures
according to forms and conventions of documentaries.
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The Technicalities That Encourage Realism Through A

Documentary
To make a media product, in particular a documentary, the technicalities used to
create an ambience that provides realism and authenticity for the audience can
generally be carried out through the maintenance of lighting, colour, natural
sounds, locations, props used and costume. Our documentary uses these
effectively throughout the documentary:
Lighting lighting during the pre-production stage whilst filming for our
documentary, we found that the lighting while shooting in outside
locations for cutaways (on oxford street, Piccadilly Circus and outside
the school building) where we were able to obtain natural lighting, had
proved more efficient for me during the post-production stage of
editing as I found that I did not require any means of adjustments for
lighting. However, cutaways taken inside stores/restaurants, the school
building, as well as interviewees homes, these had required
adjustments to brightness and contrast that had been affected because
of the unnatural lighting in buildings. To overcome this whist filming
interviews, we decided that we would use a spotlight, as this would
allow us to control the lighting better. Despite our efforts though, it had
been essential for me to edit the lighting within each frame to be able
to maintain high-key lighting through most of the documentary.

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Mehak Hussain Evaluation Activity 1

Colour additionally to the

previous statement I made about
colour, while adjusting lighting I
also needed to adjust colour to
ensure scenes didnt look too dull.
There was also regularity in the
colour schemes used within our
media product; we felt that this
was important to do as it provided
a sense of professionalism. The
colour scheme used was red and
white, the reason being that they connote love, romance, lust and
purity and therefore served as an appropriate colour scheme for the
theme and topic we were discussing, love.
Natural Sounds for our production we found that it was unnecessary
for us to add in diegetic ambient sounds as they served no purpose in
the understanding of our production for the audience. Instead we
decided to use upbeat score music that created a cheerful atmosphere.
Locations the locations chosen for our interviewees where chosen
accordingly with their occupations, for example, our first interviewees,
Numaan and Usma Khan were both students at UEL and studied from
home, therefore it would only be appropriate for the location to be set
at home. On the other hand, Mr. N Pattison is a Modern Languages
teacher at Oaks Park High School hence why we chose to film his
interview in a modern languages classroom as we felt that this would
provide some distinction from other locations used for interviews.
Directing my attention to cutaways, the locations we had decided to
use were all very public and multicultural sites. The reason we did this
was to ensure that we reach our targeted audience that was 15 to 55
year olds, also certifying there was no particular disregard to gender,
ethnicity, sexuality, race, social status, etc. To achieve this the cutaway
locations were mainly based in central London since there is fair
diversity of people in comparison to a location in a local area such as
Ilford, where it is evident that the minority is Caucasian and the
majority would be foreigners, mainly Polish and Asian.
Props due to the fact that our media product is a documentary, we
had only made use of 2 props these were the white board and IPhone
5s. The whiteboard had been used for the introduction of our
documentary as we thought this was an effective way to present some
opinions of the public without giving away too much information in the
beginning. This keeps the audience interested in what else the
documentary has to offer. The IPhone 5s had been utilized solely for the
purpose of providing a smooth flow from one shot to another. By this I
mean that, during the editing stage, whilst adding in Micheals
interview, I had to shorten his speech that caused a jump between his
movements. To cover that up I used cutaways of him using his phone to
look at a profile on a social media app, which further assisted the
audience in the apprehension of what he was saying. Also we felt that
this was a good way to allow the audience to relate since this is a
popular form of communication within our target audience.
Finally, Costume - similar to what I had said about locations, costume
had been chosen according to the occupations of interviewees, i.e. Mr.
N Pattison is a teacher, thus he was filmed in his uniform and badge
around his neck, likewise Constable Skibbs was filmed in uniform
providing a better perception of the authority he holds since he is
wearing police uniform.
All things considered, I feel that our documentary uses this form and convention
adequately and in appropriate reasoning.

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Mehak Hussain Evaluation Activity 1

- Interviews With Experts
Interviews that were held with individuals for our documentary had carefully been
selected and questioned according to their personalitys age and occupation.
There was also a contrast in positive and negative feedback, for example, while
the first three interviews provide negative feedback, the last two provide
encouraging and helpful information. The interviews with Usma and Micheal had
been reenacted and improvised, which fundamentally defies the convention and
instead challenges it since it was difficult to find interviewees who were willing to
share their bad experiences on camera. However the information provided had
been true to an extent that individuals in the public had commonly faced
experiences, or was afraid that they would. On the other hand, Numaan, Mr.
Pattison, Mona and Constable Skibbs all provide knowledgeable advice, opinions
and experiences on online dating.
- Real-life Footage
The footage used for most of the cutaways were ultimately filmed during real
courses of events as shots were taken in public areas where we captured the
public taking part in their daily routines. The idea of cutaways like these are to get
it right the first time, primarily because it is impossible for anyone to re film the
exact same shot when it hasnt been staged to begin with.
However it was important for us to ask permission before filming in public places,
as particular individuals did not feel comfortable with being filmed. This had
sometimes become a challenge and they would begin to look into the camera
making the footage seem as if it were acted making it look unnatural.
- Shaped Realism
The way in which verisimilitude is encoded into our documentary can affect the
way in which the audience perceives the information being communicated. This is
because the idea of it is for the director to be able to create realism for the viewer
who is outside, looking in. Though this isnt much of a challenge in the sense that
the purpose of our media product is to document real events, it can still prove to
be challenging since it then become vital for us to take into account small details
such as eye contact with the camera lenses when filming cutaways and
interviews. This is because this would break the 4th wall rule in which the subject
being filmed should not look directly into the camera, this is generally unlikely
seen to happen, especially in cutaways. With the exception of this, realism was
conveyed through the use of mise-en-scene.
- Sound
Depending on the style of documentary and more importantly the topic being
discussed, the sounds and score music used varies. Taking our documentary into
account, it discusses the area of marriage, love and romance, so for this reason
we felt it was important to choose score that created a joyful environment for
viewers. This was important to do as we didnt want the purpose of the
documentary to be misconstrued, i.e. the audience may worry that the dangers
are severe and may be discouraged from using online dating sites if the score was
tense and gloomy.
At first we wished to challenge this convention, so we searched for popular songs
that spoke about love, however we came to realise that there were quite a few
issues with this idea:
It could be considered unprofessional for a documentary
The audience may become too engaged with the music and might not
focus of the information being provided
The voiceover and diegetic dialogue would clash with the lyrics in the
song
The music may appeal to some of our audience but not the other
Most songs do not last up to 5 minutes.

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Mehak Hussain Evaluation Activity 1

It would be difficult to work around the lyrics of the song as the
footage, etc.
However Namrah (director) was able to find an upbeat instrumental score that fit
in perfectly and encourage the construction of the theme (Bensound Memories),
which follows the forms and conventions of a documentary. Using this nondiegetic score proved to be a challenge when as it did not last the entire 05.21
minutes of the documentary and so I had to cut and overlap sounds to fit the
voiceover and transitions from one shot to another. For the final part of the
documentary I used another piece of score music found by Namrah called
Tenderness that was a lot slower in comparison to Memories. I thought that this
would be a good way to end the documentary since it had become very difficult to
stretch Memories (non-diegetic score music), however it did not work out as well
as I had hoped. Still, I decided to leave this in as I thought it was better than
leaving a soundless gap to finish the film on.
- Voice Over
The voiceover used within a documentary is generally known to be imposing and
influential to make the audience believe that they know what they are talking
about. Once the voice over script was written we began experimenting with
different styles of voices and had narrowed it down to Keonon, who has quite a
deep voice with a posh accent or, we had Natalia, who had a clear and soft voice
with a posh accent. Eventually we came to the conclusion that keonons voice
would be difficult to understand as it might come off as mechanical and dull.
Instead we opted for Natalia, however we felt that her voice didnt have a mature
tone to it. Finally, we resorted to Mrs. Richardson, as we were already very
familiar with her voice, and felt it was mature, soft, clear and persuading.
Whilst editing her voiceover, segments of the recording had to be cut out as her
pauses lasted too long and seemed unnatural, this had made it a lot more difficult
as I the pace of the voiceover didnt flow at a continuous pace.
- Text and Titles Used
Texts and titles used within our documentary fulfill the forms and conventions of a
documentary as they quickly communicate information to the audience. Typically,
on TV when a documentary is aired, the first part of it provides some sort of short
and brief opening sequence to introduce what the documentary will be focusing
on. Our documentary does just that. With the most important titles of the director
and name of production shown first, these a positioned in the middle of the screen
to immediately grasp the attention of the viewer. Other texts used within the
documentary would be title cards and subtitle as this documentary is
(supposedly) the first part of the three-part documentary. These would be placed
in the lower thirds of the screen to anchor the imagery being shown to the
audience. Lastly, the documentary features a quote that provides some potential
insight into the next part that is then followed by a caption at the very end of the
documentary that states End of part one to interest them into finding out more
about what the quote represented in the next part almost like a cliffhanger.

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