This is my answer to evaluation question one.

1. Media Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real products?

2. Opening Sequence
The introduction to my documentary is the first example of it following codes and conventions of real and
professional products. The documentary starts with a fade in. This can be shown by the pictures above.
This allows my documentary to have a dynamic element. This is because the documentary doesn’t just
start straight away but instead the audience gradually tune into the documentary. The first shot in the
introduction immediately introduce the audience to the theme and genre to which the documentary is
based upon and straight away establishes the subject and setting. The crowd are shown listening and
dancing to an artist performing and is used as an establishing shot to show the documentary is based
around the music genre. This is an example of me following codes and conventions of real products
because professional documentaries also start by showing an establishing shot. Then the introduction
shows a montage – a series of shots giving the audience a taste of the type footage that will come later in
the documentary. Showing a montage at the beginning of my documentary shows it follows codes and
conventions because all most every real documentary starts in this same way. It’s useful because it allows
the audience to see what type of footage they can expect later in the documentary and helps establish
the setting and theme to the piece. The documentary itself isn't just thrown into the audience's face but
instead they can slowly be introduced and settle themselves into the documentary which is the main
reason we chose to follow this particular convention.

3. Opening Sequence
The opening sequence was a convention we in particular wanted to
follow. It gives the audience a chance to feel the vibe and tone for the
documentary. The sound bed in the background of the footage really
goes well to complement the pace of the editing and this helps to set
the overall feel to the documentary. It gives us a chance to show off
some of our best footage of unsigned bands performing live which
should hopefully tease the audience and give them bit of a taster, this
in turn should force them into watching the rest of the documentary.
The opening montage is essentially acting like a blurb here, it gives
the audience an idea of the type of documentary that we have
produced.
The opening title is very conventional because it mainly serves the
purpose of introducing the audience to the quality of documentary.
But primarily it outlines the actual topic of the documentary to the
audience. Once they audience have seen our opening sequence its
evident that it is based on the topic of bands and artist. And once the
title of the documentary appears its clarifies the specific question at
mind, being unsigned bands needs of a record label with todays
technology allowing them to distribute their own music.
By using an opening title sequence it shows us using professional
conventions and placing them in our own work. The technique of
including an opening title is a popular one and really helped us
introduce the feeling and topic to our audience. It was a good
convention to include because it gave our audience a chance to settle
in and introduce them to the documentary. Giving them a teaser also
proved useful because it forced the audience to become engaged and
wanting more.

4. Another convention we followed during the
production of my documentary was the use
of a title sequence. After the introduction
montage there is a shot with an overlapping
title of the documentary. This is a useful
technique because it introduces the
audience to the name of the documentary
making it easily identifiable. This also
signifies the end of the opening and the
transition to the main documentary
content. The background footage is again
relevant to the topic of the documentary
because we can see a crowd dancing to a
music artist.
Even more relevant is the name of the title itself. Using cultural jargons or terms as a title is another convention
that our documentary follows. Professional and real documentaries use this technique of using cultural jargons
as titles, for example the documentary “Devils Triangle” uses a nickname of the infamous Bermuda triangle as
the title of its documentary. This technique is done to grab the attention because they’ll be interested more
heavily on the topic and will recognise the jargon and terms more easily. Using the technique of including a title
sequence and cultural jargon as the title shows us following codes and conventions of real media products
because we have taken popular methods from the industry and included in our work to make it look as
professional as possible.

5. Interviews
The use of interviews in a documentary is a key aspect in professional and real ones within the industry, so
clearly including them was an obvious choice. However interviews themselves have their own codes and
conventions that we used in our own documentary.
Firstly we used experts for our documentaries interviews. This is a very
common convention and one that was important to follow because
audiences prefer to hear from specialists within the particular topic in
which you are exploring. They feel they can gather more valid and
interesting knowledge if the person has a sizable background to the
subject. For our documentary we used three experts within the music
industry, more specifically the unsigned aspect. Our experts had
experiences of being in signed and unsigned bands and dealing with
major record companies. Therefore by interviewing experts for our
footage helps show we used conventions within our documentary from
the professional industry and benefits our product by making it more
in-depth and enlightening – because it had the opinions of experts
which the audience want to hear because its more significant and
noteworthy when somebody who has experienced being in a
signed/unsigned band talks about it.
Another convention we followed was the use of relevant mise-en-
scene in our interviews. All of our interviews contain the form of a prop
relevant to the topic of music and unsigned bands In the background
of the shot. We placed these props in the background so it didn’t
impair the audiences view of the person being interviewed and distract
their attention, keeping their eyes fixed on the foreground. This in
itself shows we followed another convention by having all mise-en-
scene placed in the background so the audience have a clear view of
the person being interviewed, while giving the interview a setting and
some character.

6. This picture is an example of a professional interview that has been
conducted. It supports that we have followed the convention of
placing relevant mise-en-scene in the background, because here the
creator of family guy is sat in front of posters and cut-outs of his
own show.
This picture shows the unsigned band we
interviewed for our documentary with a
relevant board in the background with their
memorabilia such as: shirts, albums and
badge. This is relevant because it displays
the bands name, but also shows how a
band of this size and without being on a
record label can promote themselves. So
this shows our interviews have relevant
props in the background which give support
to the people being interviewed and more
importantly shows how we used this
convention in our own documentary, in
comparison to the professional interview
above its very similar and shows we
successfully used a conventional technique
from the professional industry in our own
product.

7. Our interviews also follow the convention of including a
text/graphic to title the person who is being interviewed. The title is
simply there to show the audience the name who is being
interviewed, because most likely they won’t know the person. We
however did challenge the usual convention of just having text by
itself overlaid on the screen because we used a guitar as the frame
for our text. I believe this makes the title look more creative and
innovative. The audiences attention will be pulled towards the
guitar forcing them to read the title, meanwhile it plays a little
cameo as a relevant supporting image this boosts the whole theme
and genre of bands and music which just makes the whole
documentary seem more consistent and continuative because
themes of music like instruments and bands are being displayed
throughout. This shows us taking the convention of using text in a
documentary to give the audience the name of the person being
interviewed, however slightly challenging the convention by adding
a guitar frame to place the text on top of. For the colours of the
font we used a dark colour that wouldn’t be to off putting but
would still stand out against the guitars contrasting fretboard.
Another convention we followed for interviews was the variations
of shots. The shots from interviews here show the contrasting style
of how the people being interviewed are framed. Primarily because
there was more people to fit in one than the other, but also
because it allows the documentary to become more dynamic and
original. This way the audience aren't being forced to see the same
shots framed the same way over and over which can become
tedious and boring. Instead they are given different styles of shots
which makes the documentary more vibrant and less repetitive.

8. Another conventional method we followed when filming
our interviews was rule of thirds. This is a framing
technique were the shot should be divided into nine
equal parts. The person being interviewed is then placed
along these intersections and framed usually in more than
2/3 of the shot to one side instead of being directly in the
middle. Also the person being interviewed doesn’t make
eye contact with the camera instead they look slightly off
to the side of the shot to the interviewer.
Another convention we followed was the person sitting
down. This allows the framing and positioning of the shot
look much better and makes the interview feel more
formal and planned, making it less awkward for the
audience to watch. Likewise the interviewer is also sat
down, this keeps eye contact level with the camera
making the person being interviewed just look slightly to
one side of the camera. Finally another convention we
followed for the interviews is the fact the person is staring
into empty space. This allows the shot to look more
interesting and means it can be filled with relevant props
such as the mixing desk and Mac in this shot. The empty
space creates room for the person to talk into and the
audience can feel as though they are on the over end of
the conversation listening in. This is supported by the fact
the audience never hear the interviewer ask the
questions, this is another convention we followed. And its
useful because it makes the audience feel as though
they're the ones asking the questions which is something
we wanted to achieve with our documentary. All of these
methods show us taking conventions from real life media
products and using them in our own work.

9. Interview conventions breakdown
Eye contact is level with camera but not Follows rule of thirds
direct.
Open space
Sat down keeping eye contact with
Name in text with guitar as frame interviewer who is also sat down to
Relevant
match eye level
Mise-en-scene
(Drums)

10. Archive Footage
We followed another convention in the method of including archive footage in our
documentary. This is footage that was originally recorded by somebody else and
typically not intended for the purpose of our documentary. Archive footage is often
used to show historical footage that can’t be obtained with extra filming. This is
shown by the example of the ‘loose change’ documentary. This documentary
covered the tragic event of the 9/11 attacks. Obviously an event such as this couldn’t
be filmed live by documentary makers because nobody foresaw the event. As a
result documentaries such as loose change rely heavily upon archive footage
recorded by news reporters and normal civilians to make up a lot of their content in
terms of footage.
We however used this convention to our advantage primarily because we used
archive footage that our budget and timescale prevented us from filming
ourselves. We wanted big crowds whilst they partied to hugely famous bands and
artist, we wanted this to show the contrast between signed and unsigned artist.
However we would have to get permission to film this footage and most likely pay
for both tickets and filming rights, on top of travelling to the nearby concert or
festival(which were low in numbers during the time of production). As a result we
decided to use pre-recorded footage from festivals and gigs that had already been
filmed and available for our use. This allowed us to still use the main purpose of
the archive footage – which was use to boost the point we was trying to make and
make it easier for the audience to picture by showing them evidence, about the
contrast between signed/unsigned bands. But allowed us to stick to our restricted
budget and timescale so that we had a better chance of recording footage that
was more realistic for us to obtain. This shows that we used another convention in
our documentary in the form of archive footage. It provided us with the
opportunity to further express points we were trying to make to the audience.
While backing them up with visual and entertaining evidence.

11. B-Roll Footage
We used another convention in the form of including B-Roll
footage in our documentary. This is secondary footage that
adds content and meaning to an interview in the
documentary. The B-Roll acts a cutaway to provide the
audience with extra and more entertaining footage to watch
rather than watch a two minute long interview of the person
just sat their which can quickly become boring and
disinteresting.
B-Roll footage also presents us with the opportunity to
further back up a point we are trying to make and give
evidence related to what the interview is saying in the
background. For example in one of our interviews the
music expert is saying they “don’t like listening to
unsigned bands mainly because the quality is poor” at
that moment we have a cutaway to an unsigned band
performing live, this suggests that maybe bands cant play
instruments as good as the professionals or the sound
quality isn't that good. This shows us using B-Roll footage
to both provide interesting footage to make our
documentary less static and boring by forcing our
audience to watch a long interview with no cutaways. But
also shows us using the B-Roll footage as supporting
evidence and helps us suggest things to the audience by
giving them something visual to associate with what's
being said in the interview. This again shows us using
conventions from real products in our own documentary.

12. Sound bed
Using a sound bed in our documentary is another example of us following forms and conventions from real
products in our work. The sound bed adds extra content to the documentary. The sound bed comes in the form
of a song that really helps emphasize and complement the build up and pace of the footage and editing. We
also followed the convention to make the audio on the sound bed dip in volume during interviews, this allows
all the sound from our interviews to be clear and easily audible. We didn't want the music to be too loud and
off putting to the point the audience couldn't hear anything from the interview. This sound bed also makes our
documentary dynamic and less 2D. The audience have something else to listen to and this makes interviews
and cutaways look and sound less empty. This is a really good technique because it adds something extra to our
documentary, allowing it to become far more alive and energetic than the audience listening to people talking
over and over which can just become very boring to watch, so by including a sound bed our documentary will
become much more entertaining.
However we did challenge and develop this convention by allowing the sound bed to run continuously through
the documentary. This is isn't a technique that isn't often used by real products. However I believe its effective
in our piece because it really complements our quality footage and gives the documentary a good paced build
up and vibe. Often in documentaries the song used for a sound bed frequently changes depending on the pace
of the documentary. We on the other hand used one song and then made the documentary match the build up
and pace of the song. This makes the two go really well with each other. The song emphasizes the journey and
footage to the documentary which is really useful because making the audience feel as though they are
exploring the topic of unsigned bands by themselves is something we really wanted to achieve with our work.
Using one song throughout the documentary really pulls all of the footage together. It give us a canvas and
platform to work on and helps to make B-Roll cutaway footage look far more tied in to the actual documentary
piece. Also a problem of using too many songs in one documentary is the fact the audience feel like their
having too many different songs and artists just thrown in their face. They never really have chance to sit down
and relax to one, so by having a consistent song throughout eliminates this problem because our audience can
really tune into the sound bed, relax and just take in all the footage and interviews that our documentary has
to offer. The audience will also become more familiar with that specific track, therefore it will just become a
subliminal thought in the back of their mind, because if we were to keep changing the sound bed over and over
this will divert attention away from our footage and interviews because the audience will take notice of the
tracks changing. All of these drawbacks of using too many songs lead us to challenging the convention and
forced us to simply use one.

13. No Voice Over
The most unorthodox and controversial form and convention of real documentaries that we decided to challenge and develop was the
narration and voiceover. During the planning stages we debated whether there was a need for a voiceover in our documentary. We felt that
all the footage we had planned to record was very self explanatory. For this reason we didn’t believe there was an emphasis on the need to
get a narration over footage that just plain and simply didn’t require it. We are really challenging the normal convention by doing this
because most modern documentaries do include narration over their work.
However the main aim and objective we had overarching our documentary was to be creative and original – it ties in with the whole theme
and topic about young and aspiring bands expressing themselves in new ways to capture the hearts of their audience, this was similar in the
way we decided to make our documentary. This shows that challenging the convention by not including it comes with purpose. If we were
to take our audience on an adventure through the mass open topic of unsigned bands and whether there is a need for record labels with
todays modern technology, then we should leave narration out of the picture so all the audience have to do is sit down relax and let our
documentary show the experts talking about the topic, after all they have the expertise of the industry so surely they’ll know what's best.
To support my statements I can fall back on professional documentaries that also chose to challenge the convention of voice overs. The first
example is ‘Primary’ by Robert Drew – he is an American filmmaker known as a pioneer of the direct cinema genre. ‘Primary’ was a
documentary follows U.S. Senators John Kennedy Hubert Humphrey as they both seek the democratic nomination for president. This
documentary follows us in challenging the normal of convention of voice overs by not using narration through the whole documentary.
Instead Drew allows the audience to see the footage for how it is, this is why we choice not to use narration. Instead the audience can see
the footage first hand and draw their own opinions from the evidence instead of being told what to think they can do it for themselves. This
documentary was seen to be breakthrough and innovative at the time of its release and is considered a classic. To even support the fact that
by not including narration allows the piece to be less bias is the fact the documentary is being preserved in the U.S. because of its
significance in showing unbiased history.
Another example is from an Oscar winning documentary called ‘Harlan County U.S.A’ by Barbara Kopple. This documentary was focused on
the ‘Brookside Strike’. Kopple was a long time advocate of working rights and decided to take a similar approach of ‘Primary’ by not
including narration. Kopple said instead of using a narrator to tell the story let the words and actions of the people speak for themselves.
Both of these documentaries are critically acclaimed for their pure un-biasedness and detail to simply show a topic how it is instead of
telling the audience for them. And show how successful a documentary can be even without including narration. This is the cutting edge
approach we wanted to take and shows that we are strongly challenging a convention but it comes with great purpose – we just want the
audience to draw their own conclusions from the interviews and footage we are showing them. We want the documentary to be a journey
into unsigned bands were they can walk out with their own opinions and facts that they find important. Details that mean something to
them. Not simply because our bias narration is telling them something, but instead the evidence is telling them something and they are
seeing it first hand. This shows we challenged forms and conventions of real media products and the evidence shows that similar
approaches have gone onto be successful before, even win an Oscar.