Question 1- In what ways does your

media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
By Katie Cook
 Introduction
For my advanced A2 portfolio, I made three
products, a documentary about beauty
standards called pushing perfection to the limit,
a radio advert and a double page spread for the
radio times magazine about my documentary.
Through all three products I closely followed
code and conventions in order to create a
professional finished product. In this PowerPoint
I will expand further on how my products used,
developed or challenged forms and conventions
of real media products
 Documentary
My documentary is about beauty
standards, in this documentary I
investigate the effects of beauty
https://solihullsfc4-
standards and the reason for this. my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/s160183_solihullsfc_ac
To do this I speak to the public and _uk/EdYgBRJzCOhGpbcyP4ZGs9kB1zSNuzo4ccp9wPnhVSc
get opinions from experts. My dpg?e=b1X7Nb
documentary is factual and aims to
educate my audience.
Code and conventions used…
• Voice over
• Real footage
• reconstruction
• Archival footage
• Expert interviews
• Vox pop
• Text/ Credits
• Music bed
• Visual coding
• Presenter/narrator
• Facts and statistics
• Fillers/background footage
• Montage
Montage
• A montage is a technique from the poetic mode in film editing where
you have a specific sequence of short edited clips. It is generally fast
paced and bombards the viewer with information hoepfull interesting
them causing them to continue watch the documentary. I thought it
was a vital technique to be included in my documentary because so
many of the one I analysed made use of this feature. An example of a
documentary that also used a montage was ‘Super Size Me’, I found
this to be an effective technique.
Voiceover
• A voice over is a common production
technique and is an example of non-
diegetic sound because the speak can’t
be seen on screen.
• Voice over was present in all of the
documentaries I viewed during the
initial planning stages. It’s a convention
which is widely used so I thought it was
necessary for my documentary.
Example of the original voice
over script for my
documentary
Music bed
• Another typical convention of a documentary wasa sound
track(background music). The back track helps convery mood and I
think that I picked the appropriate track to use for my documentary,.
A back ground track also keeps the viewer interested in more lengthy
sections of video and speech.
 Mise en scene- expert interviews
Interviewee looking
across the dead space
Office setting shows
they’re
professionals
The shot composure was very important for me
and I attempted to follow common conventions
when setting up my interviews with the
professional, all of which are shown. The correct
mise en scene in a professional interview provides
the audience with confidence when talking about
the given information. This is because what they
say is more likely to be believable due to their
knowledge in the topic area.

Smart clothing

Both professional interviews follow

specific code and conventions found in
many documentaries as shown. An
example of a documentary that
included these is supersize me where
interviews from medical experts were
also used.
Computer displaying their
work to further imply their
job roles
Thank you card, showing she is helpful to
the students she helps.
 Vox pop
• Vox pops are the popular opinions of the public. I found them an
effective way to convey opinion to the viewer. They were used in all
the documentaries I viewed during the research stage of the
coursework so I chose to include them in my documentary.

I used a medium close up and used a

common background for all Vox pops. I
choose to use a light grey background
so that the viewer would focus of the
interviewees facial expressions due to
the emotional topic being discussed,
this was a way of creating empathy for
the teenagers in the documentary.
Archival footage
• Both of the screenshots are examples of archive footage. I decided to
capture the second example as an over the shoulder shot to reduce
the amount of full screen found footage, it also shows a student
viewing the resources which emphasises how easy videos can be
accessed of makeup and changing the way people look using makeup.
• The first screenshot is of kylie Jenner, a celebrity who is guilty for the
issue with beauty standards. I used a voice over to discuss this in my
documentary.
Evaluation of documentary
• https://solihullsfc4-
my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/s160183_solihullsfc_ac_uk/EVinK
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 Double page
spread
For one of my ancillary products, I produced a
double page spread to advertise my main
product, my documentary. The double page
spread is for the radio times TV listing, as this
is the TV listing I thought would be best suited
for my documentary to feature in. The double
page spread introduces the documentary and
includes an interview with the presenter
about the documentary. The purpose of the
article is to promote the documentary, so it
was important to tell the readers a summary
of what they will be expecting from the
documentary. In the next few slides, I will
evaluate whether my double page spread
develops or challenges forms and conventions
of real life media products.
 Type of program Large masthead matching the
colour scheme. Clear colour
Stand first scheme

Date, time and

channel

Drop cap- marks

the start of the Secondary images
article

Quote from the Side bar with extra

presenter from information and
the documentary introducing people in
the documentary

Columns-
informative, detailed
text in the correct
Documentary By-line Main image Magazine title and
size font for an article
name in italics Page numbers
When producing my double
page spread I realised that it
was important to look at real
life media products so that my
double page spread would look
professional. I found 2 double
page spreads that I thought
were really effective and
grabbed my attention instantly,
so I used these 2 products to
help construct my own double
page spread. In the next 2
slides, I will show how these 2
double page spreads followed
code and conventions to
appeal to its audiences.
 Clear colour
Masthead
Stand first Type of program scheme

Main image

Date, channel
and time

Drop cap Side bar

Quote from
presenter

Columns
with
suitable
font size Title of magazine and page
Number of other images to keep
By-line readers interested with captions and numbers
extra information.
 Masthead Clear colour scheme

Main image

Stand first

Sidebar
Date, time
and channel

Drop cap

Columns
with a
suitable
sized font Title of magazine
and page numbers

Pull quote
Q&A article Secondary images By-line
with captions
How my double page spread follows code and
conventions…
• Uses wrap text to separate the article from the image- makes the page look
neater and clearer to understand.
• Page number are positioned in the corners of the pages- this makes it
easier for the reader to find the pages they’re looking for.
• I used a drop cap at the beginning of the article- lets the readeer know
where the start of the article is, making it easier for the reader to navigate
round the double page spread.
• Large masthead- visibly interesting and matches the colour scheme. This
will be one of the first features the readers sees.
• The stand first is positioned close to the masthead- gives a brief
introduction to the article.
• Date, time and channel- basic information so that the audience know
where to find the documentary.
How my double page spread doesn’t follow
code and conventions…
It is clear that my documentary has subverted and challenged code and
conventions in some aspects from the double page spread:
• I have included an additional section that I haven’t seen in many double
page spreads, this includes information and quotes from my expert
interviews. I did this to show the audience what will be included and to
keep it visually interesting.
• Instead of including a pull quote I included a quote from the presenter. This
is been made obvious that it is a quote from the documentary instead of a
pull quote from the article as the presenters name is positioned directly
underneath the quote. I decided to do this has it raises questions about
topics discussed within the documentary, encouraging people to watch the
documentary to find out why this quote was used.
Theory
• I encoded the message in the article that beauty standards is becoming a
concern due to more and more people wanting to get work done and that
the media has caused this due to the media displaying women who are
seen as ‘perfect’ which isn’t real life beauty. This is further emphasised in
my main image as it shows the extremes that people will go to with plastic
surgery just so they can look like the celebrities we see in media texts.
Therefore, this makes the media seem negative. In Prop’s theory, the media
would be the villain as they are portrayed to be negative whereas the hero
would be the presenter due to the presenter making people aware of the
issue.
• I also included symbolic codes as the female in the main image is covered
in bandages with bright red lips. Straight away the audience would know
the meaning of this image is that the female has had plastic surgery and
really cares about her appearance.
 Radio Advert
My radio advert is 60 seconds
long and includes key
information about the
documentary as well as including
key information about when it
will be broadcasted. The
purpose of the radio advert was
to advertise the documentary.
The radio advert’s mode of
address was directed mainly to
the audience that I was targeting
so I made sure the advert was
upbeat and lively as I was
targeting a younger audience.
The code and conventions I followed
• A presenter
I analysed a number of radio
• Audience participation adverts, one in particular the
• Schedule benefit street radio advert. I
found that all these adverts
• Targeting an audience stuck to these code and
• 15-60 seconds long conventions so I thought it
• Music bed was important for me to
include all these conventions
• Voice over in order for my radio advert to
• Date, time and channel of the documentary be effective.

• Sound effects
• Clip form documentary
Did I follow code and conventions?
• Music bed- I included a music bed that fitted the theme of my documentary that is being
advertised, the music is upbeat and catchy so that it is memorable by the listener.

• Length- my radio advert is 60 seconds long so that it is quick and informative, making it more
memorable to the listener. I think the length of my radio advert was just the right length to get
enough detail in that I needed while it still being interesting.

• Voice over- in a radio advert it is important that there is a clear voice over as the whole advert is
audio. If the voice over is not clear then this will make it hard for the audience to understand it,
which could risk the advertisement for the documentary. To keep the audience listening it needs
to be upbeat and lively so that it is enjoyable to listen to. I think that my radio advert followed this
convention successfully as my radio advert is clear and enjoyable to listen to. The one part of my
radio advert that is not upbeat and lively is at the beginning when teenagers are talking about
what they want to change about themselves, but this is effective in a different way as it encodes
the message of my documentary and engages the listener people they feel sympathy.
• A presenter- I used the presenter to tell the audience the date, time and channel of the
documentary. I did this so that when people watch the documentary they hear a familiar voice
which makes a connection with the audience.

• Targeting the audience- to target the audience I asked the question ‘Why do so many of us hate
the way we look?’ I did this to get the audience thinking so that it would encourage them to
watch the film to answer questions that they might have about the question I asked them.

• Sound effects- I used sound effects in my documentary to get the audience attention. The sound
effects I used a quite loud and would instantly engage the reader. I used sound effects between
clips from the documentary for effect.

• Clip from documentary- I used clips of my expert interview, Lydia Rosado. I did this because in the
interview she talks about celebrities, media, makeup and plastic surgery, which are all topics of
discussion in my documentary. Therefore, by editing and cutting the clips so that you hear these 4
topics mentioned it creates excitement, especially with the sound effects in between each clip.