1. At the beginning of the task, we were briefed about what we were going to be doing
throughout the coming months. We were told that the main task would be making
the opening 5 minutes of a Documentary, followed up by 2 slighter tasks which were
a 30-45 second Radio Trailer and a Double Page Spread for an efficient newspaper
or magazine.
There are many separate types of documentaries which concentrate on various
subjects which range from The History of Buildings to Modern Day Fast Food
Restaurants. It was a very thoughtful process in choosing Bullying as our topic of
choice and I will show why we chose this throughout this evaluation.
In order to make the best Documentary possible we had to look at many professional
TV and Cinema released Documentaries so that we were aware of the Conventions
used. These documentaries involved Supersize Me, Various channel 4 documentaries
such as GokWan’s Teenage Nightmare, and other various successful college bullying
documentaries.
CONVENTIONS –
Actuality – this is the term for film footage of real life events, places and people.
Unlike fictional films which use actors, scripted stories and artificial sets, actuality is a
record of real events as they unfold which is vital in our documentary as we intended
to express the reality of the problem that is Bullying.
Exposition –
• This uses rhetoric (factual information and opinions given by interviewees)
and passes on information in order to persuade the viewer.
• Narration is a distinct convention used by a documentary. Mainly as an
objective voice over the footage however some Documentaries such as
‘Supersize Me’ us a more subjective narrator being Morgan Spurlock.
• Narration is used as a way of explaining and debating the point of which the
documentary is portraying.
Voice-over – This is vitalin a documentary and is used for the commentary by the
filmmaker, spoken while the camera is filmingthrough a piece to camera, or added in
to the soundtrack during the production in the editing stage. Through this the
filmmaker can speak directly to the viewer giving them explanations and opinions.
This was key in our Bullying documentary in order to let, what seemed to be an
oblivious audience, know the harsh reality of the percentages and facts.

2. Interviews – These are one of the most important conventions of a documentary as
they allow for alternative opinions to even out the argument. This involves real life
people or ‘Vox Pops’ being asked questions based on the topic surrounding the
documentary. This was important in our documentary as it allowed us to see first-
hand the ignorance of the students at our college on the topic bullying.
Expert Interviews – this is another type of interview which is needed in order to gain
factual information rather than opinion on the topic so that there is plenty of
Objective and Subjective data.
Archival Footage – This is an important convention used in documentaries as it
allows for external information to be shown. By doing this you can show the facts
and figures based on your topic. Unfortunately we did not get the chance to add any
of this specific type of footage as we were short on time. However if we did we
would have shown clips from GMTV or ITV news when they are discussing the facts
about Bullying.
Reconstructions – These are an artificial scene in the documentary used to show
something which had happened in the past or could possibly happen in the future.
We used our reconstruction very effectively to represent the brutality of bullying.
As you can see above, we followed the conventions of regular documentaries in
order for it to be successful. The establishing shot is used in order to set the scene
for the rest of the documentary as well as to allow the audience to know that they
are in a college environment. This is important as we are discussing bullying
throughout colleges and schools in our documentary, so this is to deny any confusion
bought about where we are getting our interviewees from.

3. We also made sure to follow the conventions of another college/school bullying
documentary. This shot is effective as it allows the mid-shot to represent the feelings
and emotion or the interviewee’s face as well as their body language.
This manual-focus shot is very effective in that it adds a huge amount of
professionalism to the documentary. We chose as a group to make sure that we
used these shots where possible and that’s the reason why there are so many in the
documentary.
Another establishing shot used to ensure that the college environment is set firm
within the viewer’s consciousness. A pan shot was used in order to gain a realistic
outlook on the college.

4. The background music –
This music is very slow, calm and gloomy reflecting the topic of which it is based
upon. This helps to express the message that we are trying to get across in the right
way encouraging the audience to feel sorry for the victims of bullying and make them
do more to combat the issue. The background music also allows the narrator’s voice
to be perceived in a certain manor of which we feel ties in perfectly with the
documentary. However, we feel that if we were to do it again, we would make sure
that the music is levelled out throughout the documentary.
Special Effects –
We used many effects in our documentary, in particular in the opening sequence of
the reconstruction. We used Black and White edit to represent the negativity of the
topic. We used a variety of fade-ins and fade-outs in order to give a smooth fluency
to the documentary, as well as to add to the overall negative message that we are
trying to give across.
Sound –
This included background music, narration, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The
narration is a very important part of our documentary as this is one of the key factors
that will set the tone for the whole thing. The tone of the voice and the way of which
you address the audience is vital in making an effective documentary. The
documentary SuperSize Me has a very informal voice-over however this works
efficiently as Morgan Sperlock generates a theme and vibe throughout of which he
intends. Our voice-over is far more formal and serious; as we feel that in order to
express the reality and emotion behind the topic we must use this sort of narration.
Diegetic sounds are used as a common convention in documentaries especially whilst
interviewing vox-pops as the background noise is very effective in helping add to the
environment that they are in.
Similarities in our Radio Trailer.
There are many similarities between our own radio trailer and other professional
radio trailers. The background music we used was the same music that is inside our
documentary in order to maintain the balance and cohesion.
Special effects in our radio trailer involved editing the voices so that they overlapped
one another gradually getting louder and louder as well as fade-ins and fade-outs of
certain commentaries.
The Presenter of the radio station is speaking mainly in an informal way. This is due
to the fact that we could see it on Radio 1 or Radio 1xtra in which both of these
stations speak in a rather informal, friendly way. We attempted to carry out with
these conventions and we felt that we did so effectively.

5. Similarities in our Double Page Article.
The positioning of the pictures in
the layout. This is very effective
as it allows the reader to see
clear images of what’s going to
be in the documentary.
The positioning of the article in
clear view of the audience. This
isextremely effective as it is
simple, yet brilliant in that the
audience can read it easily and
effectively.
The colour schemes in both are
very simple and mutual, allowing
for all stereo-types to be
objected and for the article to be
attractive for both males and
females.
During the making of this double page spread, we tried as much as we could to
follow the common codes and conventionsof ‘The Times’ newspaper such as the
colours, fonts and layouts, types of pictures and title layouts. In that respect, I feel
that we did a very successful job.