Wednesday, 2 May 2012

1) IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS


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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