1. By Taran Basi

2. What was our brief?
 At the beginning of our A2 course we were given a brief to
create the opening 5 minutes of a television documentary
and create two ancillary tasks alongside it: a double page
spread for a TV listings magazine and a radio trailer
 We then set to researching different documentary types,
radio trailers and double spread articles
 We also researched our documentary topic : Teen Health –
and its different aspects which were exercise and diet
 Another aspect we researched was the audience
knowledge of the topic so we knew what to add into our
documentary

3. Documentary
 We wanted to make sure that our documentary was mainly
conventional so firstly we researched evidence to back up
our theories on healthy eating as the documentaries we
looked at such as ‘Super Size Me’ and ‘Fast Food Baby’ used
lots of statistics and facts to back up their opinions
 We collected this second hand research mainly through
Google and trusted websites
 We also collected primary research from our target
audience through questionnaires to make sure we added in
the right amount of theory for our audience
 Also during our research we looked into Bill Nichols theory
of Documentary Modes (2001)

4. Documentary – Nichols’ theory
Observational Expository Participatory
This mode addresses In this mode the
This is where events filmmakers appear
the viewer directly
are recorded in their own work,
with an omniscient
objectively in a ‘fly often interviewing
narrator and is often
on the wall’ style and expressing their
very subjective
own views to camera
Reflexive Performative
This mode This is very similar
frequently reflects to participatory
on its own however it is much
artificiality, often more personal as the
showing cameras filmmaker tells their
own story
 We decided to use the expository mode in our documentary as we felt the authoritative,
hidden narrator would suit our theme more and we wanted to use the modes
characteristic of being subjective to directly address the audience and influence them

5. Documentary
We wanted to make sure that we were also conventional in our use of camera whilst
filming our documentary, including the different shot types and camera set up
Long shot Close Up Medium Close Up Extreme Close Up
Handheld
Tripod
Camera
We used this during vox- We used this during the
pops to give the viewer feel rest of our shots to keep it
as though they were looking professional with
actually talking to the steady shots and use skills
interviewees such as pan and zoom

6. Documentary
 During our formal interviews we made sure we used the rule of thirds to keep the
shot looking professional. This is where the interviewees eye level is a third of the
way down the screen and they are positioned a third of the way in the screen
Fast Food Baby Commit To Be Fit

7. Documentary
 Another convention of documentaries is the use of special effects which we
decided to use sparingly but we still used
 In ‘Fast Food Baby’ they sped up their shot of a child in a trolley which we
decided we liked the effect of and used in our documentary to show chips
being taken out of a carton, and we also reversed this and slowed down footage
as well for our opening sequence
 Also in ‘Fast Food Baby’ and ‘Super Size Me’ they used mainly straight cuts
between different shots which we decided to do as it kept the documentary fast
paced and more interesting for the target audience
 However, like the two examples we also used a few dissolves between some
shots as this was appropriate between certain shots such as between statistics
and interviews

8. Documentary
 We also made sure that during our documentary we kept our
background music conventional as we didn’t want anything that
stood out too much
 We made sure that it was lively and upbeat to be relevant for our
target audience but also not too overpowering
 In final cut we made sure that we used the sound levels control
to keep the background music quiet during interviews and a bit
louder during the voiceover shots which was used in ‘Super Size
Me’
 Our documentary had examples of both diegetic and non-
diegetic music which is conventional of documentaries as there
will be a combination of both background sound from vox-pops
and the actual music that we edited in

9. Magazine Article
 This is our final double page spread for the TV listings
magazine ‘TV Choice’
We chose ‘TV
Choice’ as it was We also chose
the most relevant the bright colour
TV listings scheme and large
magazine for our use of pictures
young target for the same
audience reason

10. Magazine Article
 When making our double page spread we wanted to
make sure it was mainly conventional as it would fit
better into the structure of the magazine
We added captions onto the pictures that we used to explain the relevance of the
picture to the audience as this is a typical convention of magazine articles
Captions

11. Magazine Article
We also used many conventional features of article writing to do with the layout and
appearance of the text
Masthead ( headline) Drop Cap (beginning
of article)
Columns
Time, Date, Channel of
Programme

12. Radio Trailer
 We wanted to make sure we stuck to the conventional layout of a radio trailer
Punchy Statement
Introductory
Voiceover
Clips from programme
Voiceover explaining
programme
Information about
when the show is aired

13. Radio Trailer
 This was the layout of our radio trailer
Punchy statement
Vox-pops / formal interviews
from documentary
These two flow-charts
show that our radio
trailer clearly follows
Explanative Voiceover most of the normal
conventions of a radio
trailer
Conclusive Voiceover
Information about when the
show is aired

14. Radio Trailer
 There were also other elements of the trailer that we wanted to keep conventional
Music Voiceover Use of Vox-pops
We kept our music lively, We made sure our We used these from
upbeat and steady but voiceover was friendly, our documentary to
subtly in the background formal and informative attract the target
so the voiceover could and was heard clearly audience as they could
still be heard throughout the trailer relate to these views
 However, our trailer also broke conventions
Facts Length
Unlike many other radio trailers, we Most radio trailers are 30-40 seconds,
didn’t use lots of facts as we focused however ours ended up being just
on attracting the target audience over a minute as we wanted to fully
with opinions from vox-pops describe our documentary

15. Conclusion
 To conclude, our documentary and ancillary tasks were
mainly conventional as we felt our topic of Teen Health
suited a conventional style
 We did this in our documentary through simple but
effective editing and steady camera shots such as
medium close ups
 In our radio trailer we stuck to the normal layout of a
clear voiceover, upbeat music and clips from the
documentary
 In our magazine we used conventions such as a
masthead, drop cap and captions on images