A Day in a life of a busker: Key

Concepts Applied

Written by:
Aleksandra Ganuszko, Michael Daniel, Ben Rees, Auzair Razak,
Craig Blackwood, Alina Adela Chis, Lavinia Botirca
A Day in a life of a busker: Key
Concepts Applied
1
 INDEX

Introduction…………………………………….........2
Genre…………………….…………………………...6
Audience……………………………………………...10
Narrative……………………………………………....14
Production Process…………...………………….........17
Representation…….………………………………......21
Conclusion………………………….……………….........25
Bibliography……………………………………….......28

2
 AL E K S AN D R A G AN U S Z K O

INTRODUCTION

‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’ is a product of a 72hr media challenge where

me and my group had to produce a collaborative short documentary. One of the
main words surrounding documentaries is ‘objectivity’ this means they should be
truthful and factual and unbiased however this is very hard to achieve regardless
of the type of documentary as the creators still hold the power over what to cut
out or what bits to include in their documentaries, making them somewhat subjec-
tive. Having said this, there are certain conventions that we have followed to make
our documentary as objective and engaging as possible. The term conventions is
usually understood in a negative way, as a set of rules but conventions, in order to
survive, need to be able to adapt and shift (Gill Branston and Roy Stafford: 2010).
Every documentary has to consider it’s audience, narrative, genre and what it rep-
resents, those four concepts are crucial in the making of a good documentary and
it’s those concepts that we as a group focused on when filming ‘A Day in the
Life of a Busker’.

In our documentary we have filmed four different buskers on the streets of

Cov- entry and asked them a few questions on why they decided to busk and
if it’s worth it, we also asked them about the response that they get from the public
and recorded their answers. We then found some people from the public who spoke
to us about their thoughts and feelings on busking and finally put all of the clips
to- gether to create this short documentary.

3
 When considering the target audience we knew it’s very important to target
those people that will already have some previous knowledge of what we were
talk- ing about. For example, if someone doesn’t know what the term ‘busker’
means they will find it very hard to understand our documentary and therefore it
will not engage with them and they will be discouraged to watch it till the end.
The media, in this case our short documentary, has the power to present a
message and en- code the real world, the life of a busker, but the audience hold the
power by choos- ing how to decode the text and what to get out of it, therefore we
focused on the use and gratification model (Gill Branston and Roy Stafford:
2010). When creating our short documentary. We believe that our documentary
will target people in their 20’s as it is being published on vimeo where the
majority of users are in that age group. Therefore, our audience will be more
active, perhaps they will give money to a busker or further their research into
busking etc. here we have allowed the power to shift from the producers to the
audience by giving them more free- dom to interpret the text in their own
way yet still targeting a certain demo- graphic.

Another thing to consider when creating a documentary or, any type of text for
that matter, is representation. What does your piece of work want to represent, as
in how we want to portray something in our documentary. However, thinking of
representation as a ‘portrayal’ of something is a very tacit way of thinking what is
inside of the text because representation is a visually literate term meaning that
it’s more complex and just as Branston and Stafford said “Media texts never
simply present the world direct. They are always a construction, a re-
presentation.” (Gill Branston and Roy Stafford: 2010). Therefore this means that
whatever we choose to represent in our text is not the reality but a version of the
reality presented in a way that we chose to, this therefore reinforces the idea that
documentaries are not objective as it’s unavoidable to adjust the facts and reality
to suit what we want to represent yet it also doesn’t mean that is it not the truth.

4
 Furthermore, genre is crucial too. There are seven different types of documen-
taries, poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, performative and
structural reality. Our documentary ‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’ falls into the
genre of reflexive documentary because it doesn’t present the truth but a truth. It
presents busking in the way that we have decided to present it. The voice-over and
the different angles in the documentary are our work and therefore they could be
seen as un-natural but they are still a truth of what goes on around the streets of
Coventry. Bruzzi contends that ‘the spectator is not in need of signposts and
in- verted commas to understand that a documentary is a negotiation between
reality on the one hand and imagine, interpretation, and bias on the other.’ (Bruzzi
200: 4, Gill Branston and Roy Stafford: 2010). Therefore although documentaries
are expected to be factual and present the truth, it has to be understood that they
do this but each genre does it in a different way, they don’t deprive the audience
of the truth and reality they just choose to present this truth and reality in
different ways and therefore just as Bruzzi pointed out it’s a ‘negotiation’
between what is real and factual and what is enhanced and possibly a little
biased. If it was some- one else filming ‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’ they
might prefer to focus more on the public opinion as opposed to us, we chose to
focus the majority of our filming on the buskers therefore this just shows how the
same reality can be presented in different ways.

Equally as important as all the other concepts is the narrative. A narrative is a

specialist term referring to the ‘telling’ of a sequence of events organised into a
story form. This shapes the events, characters, arrangement of time, etc. (Gill
Branston and Roy Stafford: 2010). A narrative is arranging events in a particular
order to create a flow, a story in your media text that will create equilibrium for
the audience making the text easier to engage with and understand. We did this by
balancing the stories of the buskers. First we have a busker with a positive attitude
to his job and someone who enjoys playing music on the streets, this then gets dis-
rupted by a story of our second busker which is more upsetting as he is telling us
of his homelessness and lack of food etc. this disrupts the equilibrium however we
restore that balance and bring back the equilibrium at the end of our documen-

5
tary with our last few buskers who are far more cheery and have a more upbeat
story to share. Our documentary therefore takes our audience through number of
emotions making our narrative more engaging and effective.

6
 C R A I G B L A C KW O OD

GENRE

In this chapter, I will be discussing genre in documentary while using theoretical

context to explain my points. Due to the whole realism and self-consciousness
throughout our documentary, we came to a conclusion that the documentary (A
Day in the Life of a Busker) fell under the genre of “Reflexive”. This was one of
the modes noted by Bill Nichols, as well as: poetic, expository, observational,
par- ticipatory and performative. Another example of a reflexive documentary is
Ver- tov’s “The Man With a Movie Camera (1929)”. But first of all before we
get too deep: what is “genre?” Genre is when we can group visual, auditory,
textual and narrative codes to create generic conventions. Branston and Stafford
say “genre de- scribes the ways the companies producing and trading in media
goods try to mini- mize risk by grouping and selling their products through
established expectations”.

They also argue that there are two different levels of genre pieces: for tradi-
tional producers of media, and for the audience. Traditional producers of media
use genre to create advertising space to specific audiences or demographics during
or after a program. Audience may use genre to help find what they are looking for
much easier, and so they known more or less what to expect.

It is certainly possible to argue that documentary film has never had a very pre-
cise definition. It remains common today to revert to some version of John Grier-
son’s definition of documentary, first proposed in the 1930s, as the “creative treat-
ment of actuality” (Bill Nichols). By the term “creative treatment of actuality”
Gri-
7
erson was referring to the reality aspects, and the truth and history behind what’s
being documented. His idea has been built on to explain documentary as just
something that shows real events or something that has “actually happened” but
on the other hand there are many fiction films of things, which have happened
which aren’t classed as documentary. For example, “This Is It” which is a film
on Michael Jackson and shows actual footage but isn’t class as documentary, or
“Roots”, a film on a true story of Slavery in the US.

John Grierson was a Scottish documentary maker, as well as the founder of

British documentary. He describes documentary as “the creative treatment of actu-
ality”. His films shot people in real scenarios as he had a strong value that that’s
what documentaries should be about. He wanted to show the world other ways of
living and see our society in other people’s eyes and this was something that had
never been done before.

Lumiere brothers aren’t so associated with “the creative treatment of actuality”

even though they are known to be the first ever-documentary makers. Georges Sa-
doul says that their choice of documentary was completely random and mainly
just commercial. Georges Sadoul was a French journalist and cinema writer.

‘‘Anyone who believes that every individual film must represent a ‘

balanced’ picture knows nothing about either balance or pictures’’ (Edward R
Murrow). By this, Edward R Murrow means that films get manipulated while
being made. Or in other words, we can’t have film without manipulating this
whether it’s to do with sound or any other types of editing. There’s always
something that shows a bit of bias, or emphasis on a certain subject, so we don’t
see it for what it actually is. Edward believes that if you can’t accept this view
then you don’t know much about balance, or film.

8
 “A Day in the Life of a Busker” was quite clearly a Reflexive genre, as it didn’t
meet all the conventions of any of the other modes. “Poetic” doesn’t really have a
clear narrative and sometimes has many abstract images with subjective messages.
Reality is emphasized by visuals. Leni Riefenstahls is a good example of this. An-
other mode is called “expository” that is to do with it being factual and
informa- tive, as well as having a “correct” perspective, and assuming the
objective view. “Observational” mode just has actual footage, showing the real
events without get- ting the interviewer involved. This means that the audience is
able to put in their own interpretations as there is not much bias from the
directors. “Participatory” mode is when the director/documentary maker is
involved in the events and takes part in the real events. “Performative” mode is
when there’s a fair bit of bias from the documentary maker.
“Structured reality” is a new mode which has been described by Bill Nichols,
which explains documentary which is fixed and loses the reality prospect.
Exam- ples of these shows are Made in Chelsea, Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity and
similar programs.

The realism of A Day in the Life of a Busker came from the fact that the film-
makers didn’t ask bias questions and didn’t have any idea what the busker would
say. The buskers were allowed the chance to speak freely and openly. The docu-
mentary came more from the voice of the busker than the filmmakers. This means
that the audience could interpret the film how they like and there’s not a bias opin-
ion shown by the filmmakers.

During the documentary, there were no scenes where we actually see the inter-
viewer asking the questions, meaning the audience don’t know what the question
is. This could possibly could be argued that it was manipulated to look as if the
buskers were talking about something else. For example, at the start of the docu-
mentary the first busker started by saying “ I think it’s a way to earn money…” but
the audience doesn’t know whether that’s why he does or that’s why he thinks
other people do it.

9
 Through the idea that A Day in the Life of a Busker shows actuality and show-
ing something which actually happened, we can clearly classify this as a
documen- tary and not a fiction film. “Fiction films also focus on real people,
except that these people are usually trained actors playing assigned roles
(characters).” Our documentary shows a real life event happening in our society
in a reflexive docu- mentary mode.

10
 LAVINIA CRISTINA BOTIRCA

AUDIENCE

The word audience implies through definition, a mass of people receiving

a text, a message. Audience has always been a key concept in media.
Therefore, making a media product, in this case the documentary ‘A Day in
the Life of a Busker’, involves the process of using the concept of audience.

Media products are produced based on a target audience. Targeting audiences

implies a process of grouping audiences in categories. Analysing the categories,
the first one that we are going to describe is the demographic category, where the
NRS (National Readership Survey) is grouping the mass of people in social
catego- ries. The documentary ‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’ is addressed to
middle class, lower middle class, skilled working class and working class. People
in their 20’s-30’s or more, both male and female with no race discrimination. It’s
targeting people who have already the basic information of what a ‘busker’ is
and people who might be interesting in this topic. Another fact that needs to be
taken in considera- tion is that the documentary is advertised through social media
(Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook etc.), which might restrict the number of audience or
the opposite. The second category is the psychographic category, which is grouped
by lifestyle, ap- proaching values, attitudes and styles of life. The 4Cc’s model
(Cross Culture Con- sumer Characterization), where the audience is divided in 7
types of consumers helps the producer in targeting the audience. The
mainstreamer ( avoids risk, do- mestic, conventional, sentimental), aspirer (
young, material possessions, image), ex- plorer ( adventure, breaks rules,
experience, impulsive) and reformer ( personal growth, freedom, higher
education) being the target types in this documentary. It

11
is a wide sphere that includes various types of people. People who might actually
take in consideration the story of the buskers.

In media, the audience consumes the product, the media text, way in which a
relationship occurs between them.

Theories in media

The relationship between the media text and the media audiences is explained
by three main theories. The audience goes through different stages regarding the
understanding of the text and how they receive it. From passive/mass audience to
active/ individuated audience and then to relatively-active grouped audience. Ana-
lyzing the documentary ‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’, demonstrates that the
audi- ence is active.

A documentary is considered to be the closest look to ‘reality’, ‘naturality’, but

even if, there is still a process through which the producers are selecting what to
in- clude and how to represent it. To be more specific, they encode the reality
through media text. It is a process that gives the audience the ability of a preferred
reading. Regarding the documentary, the audience decodes the media text in an
active way, being able to do something with the text they read by using the theory
of Use and Gratification. ( Branston and Stafford, 2010) The use of gratification
model, is a ‘wave’ that started around 60’s when the audience began changing
from an pas- sive/ mass audience ( as promoted in Frankfurt School) to an active/
individuated audience. The reason for that being the new ways in which media
text are deliv- ered. According to James Halloran ‘we should ask not what the
media does to peo- ple, but what people do to media’. (James Halloran, 1970) This
explains how the readers are becoming active readers of the text, the power being
shift from the pro- ducers to the audience, giving them more freedom of
interpretation. Through the
12
theory of Use and Gratification, the audience gets a certain pleasure (gratifica-
tion), these being the reasons why they are consuming the media texts. Regarding
the interpretation of the text and the fact that they can do something with it,
might refer to the matter of learning new things about busking in UK, encourage
the talented people to try this experience themselves, teach the people to appreci-
ate buskers work. This being a good example in explaining why active and at the
same time, individuated. The fact that the audience was able to see all these differ-
ent interpretations makes them individuated. Accomplishment for which the pro-
ducers of the documentary were aiming for.

The producers tried to show the reality about the life of buskers in UK, but us-
ing a positive approach going against the stereotype of showing the buskers in a
sad or bad light. The positive approach makes the audience engage with the me-
dia text, taking them away from their real problems. For example, the cheering up
music and interviews with people smiling, which also entertains the audience.
They are getting different pleasure from it.

Other similar examples are: ‘’A day in a life’’ (2011), a documentary with a
slightly positive view of the life which gives the audience the power to make use
of the text they are reading and leave the interpretation to them. ‘Man with a
Movie Camera’ ( Dziga Vertov, 1929), an experimental documentary which uses
the Use and Gratification theory. Moving from documentaries, other films that use
this theory in order to target the audience are, for examples thrillers. ‘A Walk
Among the Tombstones’ (Scott Frank, 2014) , a thriller that engages the audience
with the suspense and the feeling of connection between them, the character and
the storyline, forgetting about the real life.

In audiences, one of the flaws is that, as a producer of a media text, you can’t
target your audience 100%. Even if the audience is target based on analyze, that
can change through the process and the audience can be invented too. By the
term ‘invented’ meaning that in some cases, as an example ‘A Day in the Life of
a
13
Busker’, you can aspire to reach a certain audience like middle class, but
some- times your message reaches only to the lower middle class.

All these put together, the theoretical and practical part demonstrates how im-
portant audience is as a key concept in media. But as a process in understanding
media, the audience is followed by another three key concepts.

14
 AU Z A I R R A Z A K

NARRATIVE

Discussions on narrative are often contextualized by mediums of a fictional sort.

However, in this instance, I intend on using the established narrative theory of Syd
Field to deconstruct our documentary film, ‘A day in the life of a busker’. Al-
though, I believe it to be customary, if not necessary to provide you with a brief
summary of the film’s plot, before I do so. To that end, I find that the narrative of
our documentary is best described as a series of conversations with various
buskers about their origin, identity, and experiences as street performers.

Syd Field’s theory of the three-act paradigm describes a common structure of

storytelling utilized in film. It consists of three thematic phases, each categorized
by the manner they further the plot. The first phase is quite aptly titled Set-up. It
concerns itself with establishing characters, and contextualizing the conflict that is
to unfold over the next two phases. The second phase, Confrontation, makes up
the meat of the movie, and is generally the most action-oriented portion of the
film, being free from the responsibility of setting up, or resolving the plot. The
fi- nal phase in Field’s theory is the Resolution, and as you may have deduced, or
oth- erwise figured from the self-explanatory title, its job is to resolve the conflict
estab- lished in the Set-up. Field goes on to describe the moment between any
two of these phases, which he terms the plot point, as an event that causes the
narrative to advance in a new direction. All things considered, it is quite a basic
theory com- pared to, say, Todorov’s theory of equilibrium, which is similarly
structured, but more specific, and precise in its description of each stage in the
process. This means that Todorov’s theory is more useful in the process of
deconstructing a fic-

15
tion film. Still, neither theory is particularly concerned with the deconstruction of
the documentary genre, a consequence of the fact that both theories are the prod-
ucts of two very focused studies into, Russian folk tales, in the case of Todorov, or
screenplays, in the case of Field. However, the obscurity in Field’s theory makes it
more valid in this instance, and in its generalizability.

Now, I will apply Field’s theory to our documentary in order to evaluate the
film’s effectiveness as a story. The first of the three phases, the “set-up” can be
viewed as the opening sequence, wherein the narrator sets the scene by describing
our stance, as the filmmakers, on the subject of busking. Field’s own description of
the set-up states “Act I, the screenwriter sets up the story, establishes character,
launches the dramatic premise (what the story is about), illustrates the situation
(the circumstances surrounding the action)…” (Field, 1979: 23), which is precisely
what the opening sequence was designed to do, through the use of expositional
narration as a means to cement the narrative, and an establishing montage in or-
der to provide a visual context. In execution, this method comes off as slightly
preachy, which deters from the film’s ability to tell its story.

The second phase in Field’s theory, “Confrontation” is a little more difficult to

analyze, as there is no real confrontation in our documentary. However, I will
point to another quote from Field’s book, Screenwriting, wherein he claims “All
drama is conflict. Without conflict, you have no action; without action, you have
no character, without character, you have no story…” (Field 1979: 25). The pas-
sage is an eloquent breakdown of what is required to make a story, but I believe it
offers a more suitable term, or reading of the second act in its use of the word con-
flict. I say this because cinema has developed artistically to the point where not
every film contains a physical confrontation, or a psychological one, for that
mat- ter. Still, as the quote above infers, every narrative-film requires some sort of
con- flict not only to be compelling, but also to warrant the telling of said story.
And, ‘A Day in The Life of a Busker’ certainly has conflict, but it is more of a
thematic one. The film is based on the conflict between the representations of
buskers in
16
the mass media, and their reality. We shall discuss this idea of representation later
in the book, but in terms of how it relates to the narrative of the film, I find that ‘A
Day in the Life of a Busker’ starts painting the picture of an accordionist, who
uses busking as a form of expression, playing against the stereotype of the vagrant
guitarist that has become somewhat of a staple in the media, when it chooses to
utilize a busking character. The film then cuts to an interview with a homeless
busker, who, for better or for worse is the embodiment of the stereotype. This con-
trast between the two buskers helps raise the question of “what is the average
busker?” and it is in the conflict of these two representations that the second act
de- velops.

The associative nature of the two buskers in the film creates a grey area,
wherein the “true” identity of the busker lies, which leads me to the final act. The
“resolution” of the film is similar to the “setup” in the form that it takes, which is
that of a narrated montage. Although in this instance the narrator explains, “Hav-
ing spoken to several buskers in Coventry, I now find that I have more apprecia-
tion and respect for their craft...” This first half of the statement suggests a conclu-
sion to the film’s narrative/conflict, with the narrator now taking a firm stance on
the subject, which is very much in line with Field’s theory of the three act
para- digm. However the narrator adds “…and I hope you do too”, which goes
back to the fact that ‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’ is a reflexive documentary,
and as such it does not so much resolve, as it does leave the question lingering, in
an attempt to incite action, or at the very least a change of heart amongst the
audience.

In summation, ‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’ does for the most part adhere to
the laws of Field’s three-act paradigm, albeit in some loose reading of the theory.
However, it also manages to subvert some of the theory’s constructs in favor of a
more non-traditional story
17
 M I C HA EL D A NI E L

PRODUCTION PROCESS

The construction of a documentary with such a sensitive subjective needs care-

ful construction in order to abide by the norms and expectations of modern soci-
ety. ‘A Day in the Life of a Busker’ as a finished product conforms to these
expecta- tions but only through editorial means throughout the whole production
process. This chapter highlights the measures that are taken in order to create such
a docu- mentary and deliver it with the intended message.

Following on the previous chapter of narrative, the documentary is able to give

a sense of omniscience by giving the audience information regarding the opinions
of buskers and those watching. This avoids the possibility of restricted narrative
(Branston & Stafford: 2010). This restrictive narrative would only allow the
per- spective of one person rather than giving an insight into the views of a group
with different demographics. For example, while the accordion player wishes to
‘evan- gelize’ his folk music; passive onlookers are revealed to have the
assumption that he is doing it for money rather than passion.

During shooting, certain shots reveal certain elements of ‘a day in the life of a
busker’. When recording the homeless busker, it was deemed necessary by the pro-
ducer to film the location of him (a car park). Without the anchoring elements of
the mise-en-scene, the audience would have less sympathy for the character. The
reason this sympathy was required off the audience was so that the documentary
conformed Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium. As the homeless busker was

18
edited into the middle section of the documentary, it needed to contrast that of
the happier street performers at the beginning and end of the film. Although five
performing groups were interviewed, only three of these interviews were used in
order to construct the narrative of the film. Many of the answers given by other
performers were promoting events and not discussing topics that we wished them
to speak about. Post – production allows the vision of the documentary to
really take form. Footage almost six times as long as the finished product was
condensed down into a documentary that is five minutes from start to finish.

Post – production gives the editor an opportunity to create mood and a general
feel for the film. A slow piano song is heard throughout and is only played when it
requires an emotional response from the audience. This non-diegetic music in-
stantly creates an emotional atmosphere, an atmosphere that has an omniscient
narrator comment over the top to engage the audience into what is being said.
Every time the narrator is commenting on the piece, the music can be heard. This
consistency throughout helps the reader engage with what the narrator is saying as
this unchanging bond between music and voice helps justify the meaning behind
what is being said.

The categorization of this documentary relies heavily on the post – production

work of the editor. As discussed in the genre chapter, our documentary is primar-
ily a reflexive documentary as mentioned in a previous chapter. For it to be a
reflex- ive documentary, it must make the audience as interested in the production
of the piece as they are the content it offers. For this to work effectively, editing
must be constructed in a way that still allows the audience to engage in the
information while simultaneously appreciating the style of the reflexive
documentary. In the be- ginning sequence and between interviews, cinematic
shots were taken in a style that’s shaky and amateur. The shakiness signifies that
the cameraman is no profes- sional, and is in fact a passive onlooker just like
everyone else who passes the street performers. All the footage of performances
can easily be filmed by anyone and this should relate to the audience in a way
that they can both listen and trust the
19
information being given while acknowledging the experimental style of using
ama- teur cinematography.

Creating a cohesive documentary is challenging when combining the

footage from many different sources without it seeming like a mismatch
montage. Using color grading and audio tracks from different performers over
the top of other clips, the edit becomes seamless and the audience can focus on
the content rather than worrying about how the edit doesn’t work.

Representations are constructed mainly through the process of post – produc-

tion. The post – production phase is the last stage before the audience are made
available to the product. An example of constructed representation is where we
are interviewing the homeless busker. In the interview, the homeless man reveals
that he is a former drug addict. If this was left in the piece, the audience would
lose the empathy that they previously had with the character as the stigma of
homelessness and drug abuse is still apparent. This is an alternate reality where
the audience is not made aware of the reasons for the character’s homelessness.

This performing community is constructed in a way where they are all seen to
be part of a sub-culture. Hebdidge describes a sub culture as ‘a group of like
minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and who develop
a sense of identity which differs to the dominant on to which they belong’. With
this being said, a sense of community was constructed within the documentary
that doesn’t isolate buskers from the rest of society. The homeless performer
mentions other buskers and say how they all know each other. This was edited in
as the end of the interview as it contains the most meaning compared to what else
was said in that interview. The audience is more likely to understand the
importance of what he says as it is constructed to be the concluding part of the
interview.
20
 The editor has constructed the documentary in a manner that allows the
busking to seem normal rather than ‘the other’. Bell Hooks on the interconnec-
tivity of races tried to eliminate ethnic minorities becoming ‘the other’ and rather
the focus of the piece. For example, a wealthy man who donates to a homeless
busker is not used in the final edit as remove the spotlight from the busking
com- munity and the generous man will become the main focus. Keeping the
busking community the most important element of the piece is vital and can
only be achieved through careful selection of clips and editing.

21
 BEN REES

THE IDEA OF REPRESENTATION

Representation is defined in the English dictionary as, “the description or por-

trayal of someone or something in a particular way”. In media terms representa-
tion is often used in place of the word portrayal. However it is argued by media
scholars that the word portrayal is too vague and neutral. I concur with this assess-
ment of representation is so much deeper and in depth. Representation can be di-
vided up into seven key areas. These are age, gender, social, class, ability/
disabil- ity, regional identity, ethnicity and sexuality. The representation of
these has changed over time as previously the media
has used them in more in line with con- ventional stereotypes however in modern
media more frequently they go against the stereotypes and create countertypes
creating a new stereotype. An example of this could be applied to brand
Burberry. It used to represent being sophisticated and was associated with being
expensive however now the media has changed this representation and the brand
now represents the opposite of what it previously did. Within documentaries
representation depends on the type of documentary it is. In Poetic documentaries
representation is very subjective as the audience takes away what they interpret.
Observational documentaries are similar to this as there is very little if not any
intervention from the filmmaker and no attempt to sway the audience. However in
expository documentaries the audience is subjected to the representation that the
creator of the piece presents then with as this type of docu- mentary puts forward
and strong argument and is not neutral. Participatory docu- mentaries believe it is
not possible for the act of filmmaking not to influence how events take place
therefore may not be an accurate depiction of that situation, place, group or
person. The Documentary in question ‘A day in the life of a

22
busker’ could be interpreted as a reflexive documentary. This documentary recog-
nizes that it is a representation and prompts the audience to question the validity
and authenticity of the piece.

Representation in ‘A day in the life of a busker’

Representation is defined as, “the description or portrayal of someone or some-

thing in a particular way”. In media terms representation is often used in place of
the word portrayal. However portray is not really the right word to use in this con-
text as this representation is so much deeper and complex than the word portrayal
presents it to be. Representation can be divided up into seven key areas. These are
age, gender, social, class, ability/ disability, regional identity, ethnicity and
sexual- ity. The representation of these has changed over time as previously the
media. This is something that Jonathan Ball covered, “far from being fixed, they
evolve”. Ball is alluding to the fact that stereotypes are always changing.
Modern media more frequently they go against the stereotypes and create
countertypes creating a new stereotype. An example of this could be applied to
brand Burberry. It used to represent being sophisticated and was associated with
being expensive however now the media has changed this representation and the
brand now represents the opposite of what it previously did. Within documentaries
representation depends on the type of documentary it is. In Poetic
documentaries representation is very subjective as the audience takes away what
they interpret. Observational documen- taries are similar to this as there is very
little if not any intervention from the film- maker and no attempt to sway the
audience. However in expository documenta- ries the audience is subjected to
the representation that the creator of the piece presents then with as this type of
documentary puts forward and strong argument and is not neutral. Participatory
documentaries believe it is not possible for the act of filmmaking not to influence
how events take place therefore may not be an ac- curate depiction of that
situation, place, group or person. The Documentary in
question ‘A day in the life of a busker’ could be interpreted as a reflexive
documen-
23
tary. This documentary recognizes that it is a representation and prompts the audi-
ence to question the validity and authenticity of the piece.

Overall the documentary gives a very narrow representation of the actual prac-
tice of busking. “Media texts never simply present the world direct. They are
al- ways a construction, a re-presentation.” People or groups construct them
deliber- ately. They are not a “window on the world” but a version of the world,
a con- structed version of the world according to Branston and Stafford. This is
due to the fact that the only buskers that appear in the documentary are musicians.
How- ever Street performance or busking is defined by Google as “the act of
performing in public places for gratuities”. Therefore the documentaries
representation of it is minimal. However it could be interpreted that musicians
are the most common type of buskers due to the fact that they were the only ones
used in the documen- tary and other types of street performers are more rare.
Therefore this could be an accurate depiction of reality but is also subjective
.
The Documentary ‘A day in the life of a busker’ represents buskers in a variety
of different ways both fitting with the stereotypes of this group and going against.
First and foremost in terms of the representation of the age of buskers it could be
conclusively assumed that in this documentary the representation of the age of
buskers is aligned with the stereotype that both the media and the general masses
have created. Typically buskers are associated with the older generation. However
this again must be taken subjectively as the documentary is only set within the
city of Coventry there it may not give an accurate depiction of this element of
Buskers and street performers.

One stereotype that is associated with buskers that the media has constructed is
that they are frequently homeless and that they don’t have a choice in doing it. On
the surface some of the buskers that featured in the documentary do wear clothing
associated with homelessness. For example the first street performer that appears
in the documentary is shown wearing an old green coat and hat. However when
24
interviewed he comes across very articulate and well educated. Furthermore dur-
ing the interview he goes on to say, “ It is a way to earn money”, however he went
on to say, “It’s something that I choose to do and it’s solely down to me”. The
documentary presents this particular street performer as a countertype. This
theme continues throughout the documentary with other street performers allud-
ing to the fact that they were not homeless and chose to do it as a way of earning
money. However the documentary did not completely destroy this stereotype as
they did interview one busker who was homeless, “for 13 years we have lived in a
tent at the back of IKEA”. Therefore in this aspect the documentary gives what
could be perceived to be an accurate depiction of buskers. Furthermore the docu-
mentary also shows street performers busking in aid of charity. This firmly repre-
sents them in a positive way and further destroys the stereotype that buskers are all
homeless and only do it for financial gain.

Moreover ‘A day in the life of a Busker’ arguably doesn’t accurately represent

the environment that street performers perform in and this starts with the narrow
depiction of street performers. Street performers are not just buskers, who are
asso- ciated with performing on street corners., however all around the country
there are events where street performers put on a show collectively with other
street per- formers for example there is a festival in Cambridge dedicated to the
art.

Ultimately the representation in documentaries is subjective to the audience.

No longer is the hypodermic needle model a recognized theory. Audiences are not
passive and don’t take things at face value. They are in fact more inquisitive than
this model assumed. Within ‘A day in the life of a busker’ there are a number
ways the audience could interpret the representation of buskers. However the
piece does somewhat destroy some of the preconceptions of street performers and
this is well communicated by the producers.
25
 AL IN A A D E L A C H IS

CONCLUSION

As we have seen in the chapters presented before, when talking about media
texts we instantaneously refer to these key concepts, which are all intertwined.
Thinking of how all these key concepts have a significance in the real world could
help your making process be easier and your final product more engaging. How-
ever, producing a good video involves more than picking up a camera, choosing
the subject and pressing the record button; as Dawkins and Wynd say “it’s about
learning to think about theory.” (Dawkins and Wynd 2010).

When producing a media text, there are four main concepts, which play a cru-
cial role: genre, audience, narrative and representation.

Genre is considered a way of showing the world a specific type or classification

of media. Referring to ‘A day in a life of a Busker’ there are various signs through
which the audience is able to identify this piece of work as a reflexive
documen- tary. The traditional way of generating a documentary has been used by
showing the truth of events (an ordinary day from a busker’s life) and going on
with objec- tivity from the director’s perspective allowing the public to put their
own interpre- tation on the way they perceive the message.

The purpose of the documentary was to aim the imposed stereotypes that lead
today’s world and to change the way buskers are viewed by different people. The
main reason was to change the way people perceive street performance and to
26
show the audience that most of the buskers are doing that because they have to do
that, not just because they consider it a good way of making money.

People’s responses and uses of modern media is what we call nowadays “audi-
ence”. (Branston and Stafford 2010). The audience chooses why, what and when
to watch so that we need to anticipate what type of audience the producer could
have and what would motivate the audience to spend their time watching the
piece of media text. In the documentary that has been referred to throughout the
book the attention was focused on uses and gratification model, which implies an
active audience who’s able to decode the message that has been transmitted. As a
fact, the audience has more freedom of interpretation. Using a positive approach
and going against stereotypes make the audience engage with the media text so
that they are able to perceive the message in different ways, depending on each in-
dividual’s view. However, when talking about audience we should think at some
key questions, which could help us to define a specific target audience “ Who is
the text addressing?”, “ What is the message that the text is seeking to get over to
the audience?”, “When, where and how is the audience likely to see the text?”,”
Will it engage their full attention or will they watch it in a distracted manner while
doing something else?” (Dawkins and Wynd 2010)

Every media form has a story of its own. The idea of telling the story broadly
relates to the term “ narrative”(Dawkins and Wyn 2010). Story is most of the
times associated with the events of narrative, whilst plot refers to the ways in
which the story is presented. (Nelmes 2012). The various series of conversations
with different buskers about their origin and identity and the factors, which led
them to busk describe the narrative from ‘A day in a life of a busker’. The
narra- tive is more engaging and effective due to the fact that the everyday buskers
life is presented and the reasons they are forced to live, as buskers are uncovered.

In the documentary the narrative starts with describing the stance of being a
busker illustrating the situation and circumstances for busking (equilibrium). The
27
disruption emerges when the homelessness is brought in the discussion, but
the equilibrium is immediately restored at the end of documentary in the shots
where the buskers seemed to be more optimists.

We opted to show the reality but is general saying that we’ve been showing the
entire authenticity of event. We can say that we choose to represent a specific part
of the truth, because plotting the camera in an exact angle only shows a part of
what happened in the moment of filming but not the entire truth behind the
scenes. ‘A day in a life of a busker’ represents buskers in a variety of different
ways, going against the stereotypes. In general, buskers are regularly associated
with homelessness but the way of representation in this documentary shows that
being a busker, nowadays, is not just a way of making money. The background mu-
sic and the ways in which the shots were arranged made it easier for the audience
to receive the message of the documentary and to be more engaging. However
when representing something we first should think about “who or what is being
represented by the text and why are they being represented at all?” (Dawkins and
Wynd 2010).

Nonetheless when talking about all these concepts we can’t take them individu-
ally because they are directly linked to one another. For instance, when you say
genre you immediately think about types of documentary and what the public en-
joy to watch so that indirectly makes one think about the types of audience. Each
type of audience has preferences so that you must think what kind of narrative the
audience would like to see and how could you represent it to be successful. In
con- clusion, all these concepts are crucial for the production process of the
documen- tary, that being the reason why they are called key-concepts.

28
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aufderheide, P. (2007). Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction. Cary, NC,

USA: Oxford University Press. 2

Ball, J. (2012). Stereotypes 'evolve like language', say researchers. [online]

avail- able from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19487021>
[ 23rd Nov 2015]

Branston, G. and Stafford, R. (2010) The Media Student’s Book. England: Tay-
lor & Francis Ltd. 51 - 65

Branston, G. and Stafford, R. (2010). The Media Student's Book. England: Tay-
lor & Francis Ltd. 106

Branston, G. and Stafford, R. (2010). The Media Student's Book. England: Tay-
lor & Francis Ltd. 388-389

Dawkins, S. and Wynd, Y. (2010). Video production : putting theory into prac-
tice. England: Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan . 7-13

Field, S. (1979). Screenwriting. 2nd ed. USA: Delta. 23-25

29
 Halloran, G. (1974). Television studies. [online] available from
<http://www.museum.tv/eotv/televisionst.htm> [26th Nov 2015]

Hebdidge, D. (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style. New York: Routledge

Hooks, B. (1999). Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Southend

Press. Brooklyn

Kalem, C. (2011). What is representation [online] available from

<http://www.slideshare.net/cigdemkalem/representation-as-media> [26
November 2015]

Kardes, F., Cronley, M. and Cline, T. (2010) . Customer behavior. USA: Cen-
gage Learning. 42

Meier, J. ( 2013 ) . Audience & Media. [ online] available from

<http://www.slideshare.net/jonmeier/audience-26145180> [ 26th Nov 2015]

Nichols, B. (2010). Introduction to Documentary . 2nd ed. Bloomington, IN,

USA: Indiana University Press. 6.

Nichols, B. (2007). Introduction to Documentary . 2nd ed. Bloomington, IN,

USA: Indiana University Press, 2010. 7.

Nelmes, J. (2012). Introduction to film studies. 5th ed. New York : Routledge :
Abingdon. 120
30
Untitled
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do
eiusm incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim
venia trud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
conse

Related Glossary Terms

Drag related terms here

Index Find Term