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

2. Our Documentary
Before we began planning our documentary and deciding on which theme we were going to choose we
researched typical conventions of documentaries. Firstly, we watched ‘Supersize Me,’ for a rough background to
see how and why documentaries use certain codes and conventions. We came up with a list:
• Actuality: Real places, people and events, none of which is scripted. This was not used in, ‘Supersize Me,’
• Exposition: Uses rhetoric to persuade the viewer, often accompanied by a voiceover which acts as
omnipresent, and which Nicholls calls ‘the voice of God effect,’ Morgan Spurlock used this effectively to carry
the viewer along with him so that his point was getting across effectively.
• Voiceover: A commentary during the film which speaks directly to the audience to explain, give opinions or
point out what is happening. Morgan Spurlock in ‘Supersize Me,’ used this to inform the audience of facts
and figures, and to tell us what the purpose of his documentary was. Voiceovers are used in the majority of
tv documentaries.
• Interviews: These are used in the majority of documentaries, they involve somebody being asked questions
often by the presenter and having their answers questioned and explained in depth. There are often
opportunities for the film makers to have an opposing opinion to give the viewers a full and comprehensive
view on the subject. However, in ‘Supersize Me,’ Morgan Spurlock was refused by McDonald’s several times
meaning that the audience didn’t get the full story on McDonald’s behalf.
• Interviews with experts: To authenticate the evidence of the documentary, can sometimes disagree with the
film maker but the film maker will often disprove them afterwards. In ‘Supersize Me,’ he sought the advice of
a health expert to inform him of how McDonald’s food would affect his body.
• Archival footage: Footage pulled from archives, to add detail to the documentary without the need for extra
filming. Morgan Spurlock used old McDonald’s adverts to show how long McDonald’s had been advertising
for.
• Reconstructions: An artificial remake of events that have taken place, these are often used when crimes have
happened to give the viewers a visual to go with the voiceover. Spurlock didn’t use this in ‘Supersize Me,’ as
there was no need to, he was experiencing the effects of fast food on his body which was documented
alongside the filming of the documentary.

3. Our documentary used:
• Actuality (in some parts): When we were getting footage for the
background of our documentary e.g. the sign outside the Sixth
Form, the people walking in Solihull and voxpops. We used actuality
as we wanted the opinions and view points to be as realistic as
possible.
• Exposition: We used this throughout as we wanted to guide and
give information and statistics to give the viewer a comprehensive
view, and test the perceptions the public have of teenage parents.
• Voiceover: We used this throughout the once again, guide the
viewer and to help them form their own opinions.
• Interviews: We interviewed members of the public to give differing
opinions on teen mothers, however it did highlight what we wanted
it to, as the only opinions we could seem to find were negative
ones.
• Interviews with experts: We used an interview with an expert to
back up our message in the documentary.

4. Nicholls’ Documentary Sub-genres

5. Before we began even planning our
documentary we learned about Bill Nicholas’
‘Introduction to Documentary,’ which suggests
that there are 6 modes in which documentaries
fall into:
• Poetic
• Reflexive
• Participatory
• Expository
• Observational
• Performatory

6. Poetic
• “They are generally impressionistic, they use symbols and associations in time and
space and the continuity in editing is not particularly important,”
• Joris Iven’s ‘Rain,’ is prime example of this, he tracks a rainstorm in Amsterdam,
there is no speech and he uses gentle, simple tones to convey his message. It’s
changing moods range from sunshine in the beginning, to thunder in the middle
and once again ends with sunshine. Although the message hasn’t been spoken
through a voiceover, it stills manages to be emotional and poetic without saying a
word.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o
PD2C0K38jY
The whole documentary only lasts 12 minutes and can be seen on YouTube.

7. Reflexive
• “Sometimes show film makers wrestling with the content of
their findings and are sceptical of the idea of ‘realism’
captured on film,”
• Louis Theroux is a prime example of this, he speaks directly to
the camera and remains slightly detached and impartial to the
real events happening so it still maintains the element of
realism.

8. Participatory
• “Emulate anthropological approaches – participant observation, show the
film maker as a social actor in the film, are a response to the idea that it is
impossible for the presence of a camera to achieve objectivity”
• This is usually used in a documentary when the presenter is trying to
uncover the truth or dig for information, usually used in undercover police
documentaries, for example Dispatches ‘Undercover Cop,’
• http://misc.docuwat.ch/videos/?alternative=2&channel_id=0&skip=0&su
bpage=video&video_id=701
• A police woman goes undercover to find out how the police deal with
cases like sexual assault and rape.

9. Observational
• “Observes lived life, uses minimum
intervention, views poetic documentaries as too
abstract”
• They tend to have no music, no interviews, no
scene arrangement of any kind, and no narration.
Hand-held cameras are often used to be as
unobtrusive and real as possible.
• ‘16 and Pregnant,’ is an example of this, the
documentary follows the teens around and
observes their everyday lives with no interference
whatsoever.

10. Performative
• ‘These tends to be shaped into an investigation or
search that may not end in a satisfactory conclusion,’
• Steve Irwin as the Crocodile Hunter is an example of
a performative documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLIMgXv89VU
• As he focuses more on the entertainment value of it
and less on the factual side he is put into the
‘performative’ category.

11. Expository
• “Speaks directly to the viewer, proposes a strong argument, uses rhetoric,”
• This was the mode that our documentary followed, we had Ellie Marsh our
presenter speaking directly to the camera, trying to persuade the viewers
that things aren’t always what they seem.
• Before we began filming the documentary we researched expository
documentaries. Firstly, we watched ‘Cherry Has A Baby,’ but then we
decided we although the structure of the documentary was exactly the
way we wanted it, we wanted something that related more to our chosen
topic, teenage pregnancy. So we watched an array of documentaries that
focus on teenage pregnancy including: ‘Too Young? My Big Decision:
Pregnancy,’ and ‘Underage and Pregnant,’ which in particular centre
around British teenagers, who are our target audience.

12. ‘Textbooks, Tweets and Toddlers,’ as
an expository documentary.
Why our documentary fits into the expository category:
• Throughout the documentary we use a voiceover and an
on-screen presenter that directly addresses the
audience, and by doing this she persuades the viewer.
• By speaking to a person of authority (e.g. our sexual
health expert) we reinforced our argument.
• By adding factual information and statistics, “In 2010 the
UK saw a 1.4% increase in teen pregnancy in England and
Wales alone,” we were able to back up our argument
successfully.

13. • Before we began planning we watched a wide range
of documentaries , ‘Supersize Me,’ ‘Airline,’ ’16 and
Pregnant,’ and ‘The Crocodile Hunter,’ from this I
managed to pick up the typical conventions of a
documentary, which would help me structure my
own. I learned about the effects of certain camera
angles, for instance a close-up to show emotion or to
focus in on something important, and an establishing
shot to set the scene.
• For instance, in ‘Supersize Me,’ uses close-ups to
show the viewer all the greasy, unpleasant parts of
his foods.

14. • The majority of the time establishing shots were used to set
out the scene, this helps the documentary run smoothly as it
gives the impression that it is continual. We also did this to
give the viewers a visual as well as setting the scene for the
following clips.
• We have both used a sign post to establish where we are
going and this is helpful for the viewer as they are kept
informed.
A shot taken from our documentary A shot taken from Supersize Me

15. • Whereas in ‘Cherry Has A Baby,’ the most common shot used
is a medium shot, as she was meeting and chatting to a lot of
people this shot was needed so the viewer can have a casual
look at the people talking.
• Both our documentary, ‘Textbooks, Tweets and Toddlers’ and
‘Cherry Has A Baby’ use a medium shot the most.
A shot taken from our A shot taken from Cherry
documentary Has A Baby

16. How we filmed it
• We felt that using a tripod would be the most
effective method of filming, it looks more
professional, is steady and clear so the viewer can
concentrate on the content and fits the expository
mode we have aimed for. Using the tripod meant
that we could pan, zoom and perform tracking shots
effectively.
A screen shot from one of our panning shots

17. Sound
• It is known that sound is extremely important in
documentaries, from no dialogue and gentle music in ‘Rain,’
by Joris Ivens to the very informative voiceover by Morgan
Spurlock in ‘Supersize Me,’ both have suited their criteria and
given the intended tone to their documentaries
• In our documentary we have used a range of sound this
includes, diegetic, non-diegetic, ambient sounds, voiceover
and background music.
• Just as in ‘Supersize Me,’ we used a presenter and a
voiceover, this helped us to give the viewers a comprehensive
and persuasive argument.

18. Background Music
• For our music we chose something powerful for the parts without the
voiceover and presenter to lighten the atmosphere, and when there was a
voiceover we kept it low so that it wasn’t overpowering. Similarly, in
‘Supersize Me,’ the background music was powerful when there was no
voiceover and then quietened down once he began speaking, although we
made our own music ‘Supersize Me,’ used actual songs like ‘Fat Bottomed
Girls,’ by Queen.
• I believe the music we chose was perfect for our documentary, we
manipulated the sounds levels carefully and spent a lot of time deciding
which one was right on ‘Garageband,’
• In the end we decided on ‘Secret Agent Guitar 3’ and ‘Secret Agent 4’
looped over and over.

19. Special Effects
• Our long interviews were sliced up and transitions were put in
place to create the effect that we had been talking for a while
and that we had chosen the vital parts of the interview in for
documentary.
• Just like in ‘Supersize Me,’ we created graphics to display on-
screen what the voiceover was saying:
The graphic we created A screen shot from Supersize
Me

20. • Moreover, as we used manual focus we were
able to blur our shots however we wanted, so
when we took a panning shot of the cafeteria
at college we were able to blur them
out, which creates anonymity and creates a
sense of significance for our intended teenage
audience.
A screen shot from our documentary,
‘Textbooks, Tweets and Toddlers,’

22. Magazine Article
• This is our magazine article,
before deciding how we were
going to lay it out we
researched which magazine it
was suitable for. We found
that ‘Teen Vogue,’ was the
perfect one. On their website
they describe it as, “following
the basic tenets of teen
magazines, although with a
more glossy view which fits
with the template of the
Vogue style. The magazine
also features more serious
topics such as discussions
about teen pregnancy.”

23. • We also included a picture of our presenter in
the middle of the page to link it properly to
our documentary, also captioned it to make it
appear more professional.
A double page spread
Our double page spread
from Teen Vogue

24. • Mastheads usually include some sort of pun or a way
to grab the readers attention by being
provocative, which is what we included in ours, just
as ‘Teen Vogue,’ does:
• For ours we chose, “It’s a bumpy ride!” which from
our research we determined would suit our target
audience of teenage girls.

25. • Drop caps are used to begin the article, as a sort of mark that
catches your eye and tells you where to read from. We used a
drop cap, just as Teen Vogue does:
• We also used a pull quote which is a typical convention for all
magazines:
Our double page
spread

26. • As for all professional magazines advertising something they
put the time, date and channel it’ll be shown on, which is
exactly what we’ve done:
• We also created some cartoon babies that represent their
countries on the second page to illustrate that teen pregnancy
happens all over the globe and that maybe we should get
used it.

27. Radio Trailer
• As we were planning our radio trailer we listened to some from stations
like, ‘BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4’ ‘Capital FM,’ and ‘BRMB,’ and we filled in
these sheets (presented at in the right-hand corner).
• Finally we decided on BBC Radio 1 as it is the most appropriate for our
target audience.
• We added the same music from our documentary to our radio trailer, this
creates a strong link and is a typical advertising strategy.
• We kept our language bright and breezy and took snippets from the
documentary to further reinforce the connection between the two.
• All of the trailers we listened to ranged from about 30 to 50 seconds long,
so we aimed for between that and came out with around 32 seconds
which we deem perfect. It’s fast paced and because the music is upbeat it
creates an exciting atmosphere.