We consciously choose not to use Voice Over’s in our Mockumentary
as we felt like it would alter and influence the reading of our media text and
create a passive Media audiences rather than a active one. Therfore, instead of Voice Over, we used Title Cards to explain certain events that happened off-screen.
Two of our Title Cards; used instead of Voice Overs to explain off-screen plot points.
Our whole project as
a whole encourages a more active media reading. Our genre for example, a
mockumentary, usually “mocks” a certain topic, mockumentaries aren’t meant to
be taken serious mostly but ours is. That is due to us not specifically wanting
to do a mockumentary. Our main ambition was to create a hybrid of two media
genres. Teen Movies and Documentaries. The Mise-En Scene within our Mockumentary heavily references
the general conventions of Documentaries and the way they are shot. We used Talking
Heads for the individual interviews with the various characters and used
subtitles to annotate the shots, revealing the characters name and their
profession.
Example of Annotations and Subtitles used in Talking Heads of our characters.
In order for the interviews to not get visually boring, we decided to use reaction shots and noddies of the interviewer in order to make the on-screen happenings seem more alive and quick. This makes it easier for the audience not to lose interest and keep paying attention.
Example of Reaction Shots of the Interviewer during the Interviews
At several instances we used Handheld to create a feeling of
everything happening in the moment, making our mockumentary seem more real as
opposed to staged and scripted. For Example, the scene where we interview the
character “Charlotte” takes a surprising
twist when she receives a text and storms out the room. The camera switches to
handheld and follows her out the room for quite some time when finally, it is
shut down by the angry character. This makes everything seem more real and
believable.
Example of the camera switching from tripod to handheld, chasing one of the characters.
The American documentary “American Teen” features similar technical
aspects that are often present in this genre. The movie often uses a Handheld
camera following the various characters. Vox Pop and Talking Heads are also a
recurring technical stylistic device.
Example of Reaction Shots of the Interviewer during the Interviews
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