Scheduling
We looked through and commented on a three day schedule given to use including all of the terrestrial channels and then attempted an answer questions given to us. This is what we found:
The schedule for each day can be broken down into clear segments. How would you categorise these segments?
Breakfast
Daytime
Evening – Peak time – Mass Audience
Post water shed
Who are the target audience for these Segments?
Breakfast - Differs according to channel
Daytime – House wife’s, elderly, students and unemployed
Evening – Families
Post Water She – Adults
What would you say are the most popular genres on television?
Soaps
Game Shows
Sit-coms
Reality TV
Drama’s (Police Drama mainly)
Cookery Programmes
Who is the target audience of each terrestrial channel? Give examples to support your views.
Channel 1- Everyone (We pay for this channel through license fee)
Channel 2- Caters for minority audiences
Channel 3 – Everyone (same as channel 1)
Channel 4 – Produces programmes for minority audiences
Roughly, what percentage of each channel’s schedules is taken up with repeats?
BBC1 – 5%
BBC2 – 30%
ITV1 – 5%
C4 – 30%
C5 – 30%
BBC1 and ITV1 do not have many repeated programmes on there channel, this is down to money. Channel 2 and 4 don’t have the money of BB1 or ITV and therefore can not afford to make as many programmes themselves. It is cheaper for the company to simple buy a programme than it is to make one.
Which channels have more imported programmes in their schedules? Why?
Channel 5 - Again this is a money issue, channel five have to look for the cheaper solution which is importing a programme from a different country.
What do you understand by the term ‘the watershed’ and where does this occur in the schedules?
I take this to be the adult’s only time of telly, usually starting around 9 o clock. After 9 o clock young children should not be watching.
3 Main Types of TV Scheduling
Today in class we continued to look in more detail at scheduling. We talked of the three main types of scheduling and each types pro’s and con’s.
Inheritance – Scheduling a programme immediately after a popular programme in the hope it will ‘inherit’ some of its audience.
Pr-Echo – Scheduling a programme before a popular programme. The hope is that the audience for the popular programme will tune in early before it starts and accidently catch’s the end of the new programme, which may brag there attention and encourage them to watch the whole programme next time.
Hammoking – Scheduling a programme between to popular programmes so it benefits from both inheritance scheduling and pre-echo scheduling.
On the surface inheritance would make appear to make more sense as the viewers are already hooked and on the channel. However now a lot of the programmes do not start at the time scheduled in newspapers or magazines, this is not accidental. It is entirely deliberate,, the channel is aware of a programme starting at a certain time and till tune in, therefore they put a trailer on for a new programme at this time and start the programme a little later.
Channel Loyalty - 20-30 years ago an audience would tent to put on a channel and then stick with that channel all night. At one time Channel one was viewed as sophistication and somewhat educational and channel three perhaps more trashy and wild. Each channel would have there loyal viewers who tunes in every night and did not turn over.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Codes and Conventions of a Documentary
Narrative Structure
-Open, closed or circular
-Linear or Non-Linear (non-linear seems more common as it allows flashbacks and other editing use)
- Most commonly single strand narrative
Camerawork
Interviews – framing to left or right
- Close up or medium close up
Handheld – actuality footage
Variety of shot types and camera movement used to sustain the audiences attention
Panning
Zoom (on still images)
Mise-En-Scene
Background of interview
- Location
- Backdrop
- Chromakey
- Anchors the person to the subject matter
- Lighting can be used creatively
Sound
Voice Over
- Standard English
- Glue that holds the narrative together
- Age and gender sometimes reflects the topic of documentary
- Sets the scene. Introduces the topic
- Concludes the narrative
Music is used as a bed (music bed) –
- Relevant to the topic
- Heightens emotion
Interviews
- all questions edited out
- background noise on interview kept to a minimum
- sound effects used in reconstructions
Editing
Cut is the most commonly used edit
Dissolve can be used
Editing effects kept to a minimum to kept attention on subject
Fades to and from black – commonly show passage of time
Montage’s used to give the audience a flavour of what the programme is about.
Archive Material
Film
Music videos
T.V
Newspaper
Audio
Websites
Still images
All the above should be relevant to what is specifically being talked about that the time.
Graphics
Title is in some ways unique
Names and relevance to topic anchors who interviewees are
Top line (name) of the graphics is bigger than subtitles
Graphics are kept simple as to not distract attention
Credits
Can be used to anchor a period of time (e.g. May 1991)
Subtitles (translation)
-Open, closed or circular
-Linear or Non-Linear (non-linear seems more common as it allows flashbacks and other editing use)
- Most commonly single strand narrative
Camerawork
Interviews – framing to left or right
- Close up or medium close up
Handheld – actuality footage
Variety of shot types and camera movement used to sustain the audiences attention
Panning
Zoom (on still images)
Mise-En-Scene
Background of interview
- Location
- Backdrop
- Chromakey
- Anchors the person to the subject matter
- Lighting can be used creatively
Sound
Voice Over
- Standard English
- Glue that holds the narrative together
- Age and gender sometimes reflects the topic of documentary
- Sets the scene. Introduces the topic
- Concludes the narrative
Music is used as a bed (music bed) –
- Relevant to the topic
- Heightens emotion
Interviews
- all questions edited out
- background noise on interview kept to a minimum
- sound effects used in reconstructions
Editing
Cut is the most commonly used edit
Dissolve can be used
Editing effects kept to a minimum to kept attention on subject
Fades to and from black – commonly show passage of time
Montage’s used to give the audience a flavour of what the programme is about.
Archive Material
Film
Music videos
T.V
Newspaper
Audio
Websites
Still images
All the above should be relevant to what is specifically being talked about that the time.
Graphics
Title is in some ways unique
Names and relevance to topic anchors who interviewees are
Top line (name) of the graphics is bigger than subtitles
Graphics are kept simple as to not distract attention
Credits
Can be used to anchor a period of time (e.g. May 1991)
Subtitles (translation)
Class Analysis of Documentarys
The Devil Made Me Do It Analysis
We spend today’s lesson watching a documentary named ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’, which looked at the murder of a Nun, and the murders which happened to be three teenage girls. The documentary looked and raised questions on Marilyn Manson’s influence his music had on the teenager’s state of mind, and essentially what part his music and influence played in the murder of the nun. We took down a few notes whilst watching the documentary, commenting on aspects such as camerawork, narrative structure, mise-en-scene, archive material, editing, graphics, and theme’s and sound. In tomorrows lesson we will be continuing to watch the documentary and discussing our notes to see what opinions others have on the documentary.
The general idea of today’s lesson was to discuss in a lot more depth the aspects of the documentary that made this programme so interesting and thought provoking.
Documentary type : Mixed - the contents consisting of interview, observation and narration
Themes - The effect Marylyn Mansions music had on influencing the teenagers to murder a nun
- binary opposition
- Good Vs Evil (This theme is reinforcing with the use of things like camera work, and lighting. For example when the interview with Manson himself is taking place we see a unique and deliberate lighting technique, with half of his face light up and the other half in darkness)
Camerawork -
. Tracking shots of both women walking underground to catch a train and police men walking towards the camera with the camera tracking backwards.
. Interviews – The interviews were mostly similar in the shots with either close ups, or medium close ups used. The subjects was also famed to either the left or the right of the scene
. Mason’s personal interview – His interview was shot in low angle which contrasts with the normal, straight on angle everyone else is shot in. Maybe this is to give Manson an air of authority and power
.Concert – In the Marylyn Manson live concert the camera man puts himself in the audience as if he was one for the fans. This heightens the experience for the audience watching at home.
.Long shot - At the beginning of the programme we see a long show of a deserted alley way. This signals where the murder takes place? We see a variety of shots of deserted streets or town in either high angle shots or slow pans.
Religious iconography – various shots of stained church windows, crosses,
. Shots of Jesus Christ on the cross – This is very important In that Jesus on the cross is the only other character to be shot in low angle other than Manson. Does this suggest that Manson could control and influence children with him music in the same way Jesus could with his speech?
Mise-En-Scene
. Interviews – The interviews seems to slightly represent and reflect the subject of the interview. For example teenagers in their bedroom together and the couple filmed in two shot on a couch. The subjects are subconsciously revealing a bit it of there lives to the audience.
Chief Police Officer – Carefully constructed mise-en-scene in these shots. The chief’s hat is placed deliberately on the table right in front of the camera. This helps to anchor the relevance the specific person has to the subject matter of the documentary. We are basically seeing the man through his occupation, as he himself is of no relevance.
.Beginning shots and End – The is huge contrast from the beginning of the programme in which we see a beautiful, traditional Italian town shot with slow planning to create an atmosphere of relaxation, to the last show if the teen-filled city with loud cars speeding past. Shows maybe the corruption the town has faced in relation to the trial and murder.
MacDonald’s – We see a shot of Manson being shot going into MacDonald’s with his girlfriend and two security men, This suggests to me that Manson is a powerful manipulator in that his character profile does not fit eating at MacDonald’s however no one seems to be aware in the filming of how hypocritical this gesture is. We do not expect this rage filled, rock and role star that stands for freedom of speech and individuality to be eating at one of the most capitalistic associations in the world. This should remind the audience that Manson is actually just a stage character, and Brian is constantly playing him.
Sound
Music – We hear religious choral music in the beginnings, matched with the slow planning and shots of the traditional Italian city.
Sound effects - background sound effects of for example heart beat, stabbing noises, church bells.
Italian Voice over translation – Each individual voice over in the documentary seems to reflect the gender and ago of a different teen. The voice over had an Italian accent which helps to convey something about the way people speak.
Editing
Cutting – the main editing technique used throughout this documentary is cutting, and cross cutting. Using simple editing techniques like this means the audience can focus on the subject of the programme in more detail instead of stopping and acknowledging the camera work. The audience therefore throughout ‘the Devil Made ME Do It’ are not distracted by fancy editing.
Fade to black – There are a few fades to and from black through out the documentary, these are generally used to show passage of time.
Montage – Before the title appears on the screen the audience see a montage of clips taken from the show. This is simply to grab the audience’s attention and persuade them to watch the whole show.
Archive Material
Manson’s music video
Footage of Italian talk show
Shots and filming of newspaper cuttings
Graphics
Names and date – Graphics were used throughout to inform the audience of the speakers name and of the date.
Introductions – There were graphics used when, usually when a new person was introduced to the documentary. This helped to anchor the meaning the person had to the subject and narrative of the programme.
Time passage – Graphics were also used to present passage of time.
Title – The graphics included in the title where important because already at the very beginning of the programme the theme of juxtaposition and good versus evil is being foreshadowed. The font used for the text has huge connotations of evil; the text is some what gothic and creates weariness. However in contrast to this we see a small image of a cross appear in the title which links to the theme of religion.
All the graphics used where the same bold white text. The graphics were all very plant and were clearly there for the only purpose of proving information. They were deliberately simple as t not attracts the audience’s attention away from the subject or person.
That Thing Analysis
Type of Documentary:
. Mixed – consisting of interviews, achieve material and has the use of a main voice over which holds the whole narrative together.
Theme:
.Power of the Media – In this case we look at the case of computer gaming and the power they have in empowering women.
.Feminism – The documentary looked into the visual appearance of Lara croft. Is there a certain amount of pressure on women to have to perfect appearance? Stereotypically Lara croft has a tiny waist and large chest.
Icons – Representation of women in general.
Narrative Structure:
.Non Linear – no time line involved at all throughout the documentary
.Closed narratives - In that there were no questions left in the audiences mind unanswered.
.Single strand - One consistent narrative running through out the programme.
Camerawork
.Interviews – The documentary showed creativity with the use of camera angles in the interviews. We seen Big close ups in the interview with the creator of Laure Croft, Medium close ups and tilted frames.
.Point of View Tracking shot in the room with a lot of computer gamers.
Mise-En-Scene
.Interviews – the interview with the creator of Lara Croft was treated differently from the other interviews. Cleverly he was presented as an actual computer game character himself, with a computer screen around his face.
.Cromeky – this was used in the back ground of a lot of interviews, with either filed footage or game footage being played in. It is also important that the background was deliberately out of focus, perhaps in an attempt to draw the audiences attention to what is actually in focus.
.Front projection on face of women being interviewed – This is possibly used in order to make the interviewees face appear to be in the game being played in the background. To create this effect the producers would have simply placed a project in front of the interviewees face.
Sound
Voice Over- The voice over is male and speaks in Standard English with young sounding voice. The age of the male providing the voice over is important as it reflects and is appropriate to the contents. It sounds almost as though the voice over man who is the type of person to actually play on of the video games.
Music – When the images are playing into the background there is a lot of music throughout. Throughout the whole programme there is a variety of different music playing. The music played seems reasonably modern, the music in particular convey the idea of a young target audience. We hear dance music that seemed to turn into Madonna’s music track. This Madonna music was used as in relevance to a comment that was mad about her in the programme.
Music from the sounds of the game
Editing
Fast motion – the editing was done as so the camera seemed to be the audience speeding round the room. This was a major example of a point of view tracking shot.
Superimposed – The interviewee was imposed on top of the footage of the game playing in the background during an interview.
Angelina Jolie – Through the programme we see snaps of an interview with her, the editing is clever in that the interview is filmed in medium close up, however there was one part which showed a close up f her face.
Cut - Throughout the short documentary there was a fair few amounts of simple editing techniques used, for example the use of cutting. This is to not draw the audience’s attention away from the subjects or person in the documentary.
Archive Materials
Website shots
Fan Forum
Recorder emails on screen
Extracts from the game
Nike advert
Angelina Jolie – Footage of an interview with Angelina Jolie.
Graphics
Conventional – There was a conventional use of graphics throughout the documentary, for example the way that the graphics appeared on the opposite side of the screen of that with he person was on.
Interestingly the graphics were specific in the use of no capital letters at all. However the name of the person appearing in the documentary’s name was in larger font, and then occupation or relevance the person played to the subject of the documentary was in smaller font.
Title – the title was in speech bubbles, this suggest discussion and is unique for the programme.
Type of documentary
Mixed – Voice over
- actuality footage
- interviews
Themes-
- Marketing
- the music industry
- manipulation of audiences
- power of the media
- the way meatloaf’s image is sued to influence the buyers
Narrative Structure
- Non Linear
- Single stand
- Closed narrative
Camera work
- Low angle shots in board room
- Interviews use conventional camera work – close up or media close up used, other than in the interview with one man who sits side ways. Filmed in profile which felt strange and unconventional to the audience because we can not see his face, no eye contact is being made. This proves that the conventional rules have been broken.
- Hand held – Actuality footage – Camera is observing the press
- Point of view shot – the person holding the camera shows there VIP pass in front of the camera and to the bouncer. This gives the audience a feeling of exclusivity.
- Zoom and Pan - especially on still images – creative and interesting when the image is slowly revealed. This happened in images such as magazine covers and posters.
- Handheld – Part of press conference. We are not observing the media here, we are part of it.
Mise-En-Scene
- Chromakey – more commonly know as blue screen or green screen. This is used as a background throughout interviews and ensures the interview setting is relevant to what is being spoken about. The background is overlaid behind the subject’s interview.
Sound
- voice over –male, Standard English. Holds the narratives together
- sound effects, E.G heartbeat
- Music – tense sounding music in background
- No sound in the background when the interviews are taking place and all questions have been edited out. This ensures not to distract audience listening.
Editing
- Cut – most commonly used throughout, simple editing keeps the audience paying attention to the subject.
- Dissolve – man dissolves in and out of interview
- Spinning Effect – used on newspaper and magazine shots
- Montage
- Fast motion – outside HMV. Public walking past in fast motion
- Slow motion – On meatloaf
Graphics
- Unique title
- Used to introduce new people to the documentary – normally displaying persons name and occupation
- Anchors relevance the person has to the topic
- Plain, simple, bold - Not to distract attention
We spend today’s lesson watching a documentary named ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’, which looked at the murder of a Nun, and the murders which happened to be three teenage girls. The documentary looked and raised questions on Marilyn Manson’s influence his music had on the teenager’s state of mind, and essentially what part his music and influence played in the murder of the nun. We took down a few notes whilst watching the documentary, commenting on aspects such as camerawork, narrative structure, mise-en-scene, archive material, editing, graphics, and theme’s and sound. In tomorrows lesson we will be continuing to watch the documentary and discussing our notes to see what opinions others have on the documentary.
The general idea of today’s lesson was to discuss in a lot more depth the aspects of the documentary that made this programme so interesting and thought provoking.
Documentary type : Mixed - the contents consisting of interview, observation and narration
Themes - The effect Marylyn Mansions music had on influencing the teenagers to murder a nun
- binary opposition
- Good Vs Evil (This theme is reinforcing with the use of things like camera work, and lighting. For example when the interview with Manson himself is taking place we see a unique and deliberate lighting technique, with half of his face light up and the other half in darkness)
Camerawork -
. Tracking shots of both women walking underground to catch a train and police men walking towards the camera with the camera tracking backwards.
. Interviews – The interviews were mostly similar in the shots with either close ups, or medium close ups used. The subjects was also famed to either the left or the right of the scene
. Mason’s personal interview – His interview was shot in low angle which contrasts with the normal, straight on angle everyone else is shot in. Maybe this is to give Manson an air of authority and power
.Concert – In the Marylyn Manson live concert the camera man puts himself in the audience as if he was one for the fans. This heightens the experience for the audience watching at home.
.Long shot - At the beginning of the programme we see a long show of a deserted alley way. This signals where the murder takes place? We see a variety of shots of deserted streets or town in either high angle shots or slow pans.
Religious iconography – various shots of stained church windows, crosses,
. Shots of Jesus Christ on the cross – This is very important In that Jesus on the cross is the only other character to be shot in low angle other than Manson. Does this suggest that Manson could control and influence children with him music in the same way Jesus could with his speech?
Mise-En-Scene
. Interviews – The interviews seems to slightly represent and reflect the subject of the interview. For example teenagers in their bedroom together and the couple filmed in two shot on a couch. The subjects are subconsciously revealing a bit it of there lives to the audience.
Chief Police Officer – Carefully constructed mise-en-scene in these shots. The chief’s hat is placed deliberately on the table right in front of the camera. This helps to anchor the relevance the specific person has to the subject matter of the documentary. We are basically seeing the man through his occupation, as he himself is of no relevance.
.Beginning shots and End – The is huge contrast from the beginning of the programme in which we see a beautiful, traditional Italian town shot with slow planning to create an atmosphere of relaxation, to the last show if the teen-filled city with loud cars speeding past. Shows maybe the corruption the town has faced in relation to the trial and murder.
MacDonald’s – We see a shot of Manson being shot going into MacDonald’s with his girlfriend and two security men, This suggests to me that Manson is a powerful manipulator in that his character profile does not fit eating at MacDonald’s however no one seems to be aware in the filming of how hypocritical this gesture is. We do not expect this rage filled, rock and role star that stands for freedom of speech and individuality to be eating at one of the most capitalistic associations in the world. This should remind the audience that Manson is actually just a stage character, and Brian is constantly playing him.
Sound
Music – We hear religious choral music in the beginnings, matched with the slow planning and shots of the traditional Italian city.
Sound effects - background sound effects of for example heart beat, stabbing noises, church bells.
Italian Voice over translation – Each individual voice over in the documentary seems to reflect the gender and ago of a different teen. The voice over had an Italian accent which helps to convey something about the way people speak.
Editing
Cutting – the main editing technique used throughout this documentary is cutting, and cross cutting. Using simple editing techniques like this means the audience can focus on the subject of the programme in more detail instead of stopping and acknowledging the camera work. The audience therefore throughout ‘the Devil Made ME Do It’ are not distracted by fancy editing.
Fade to black – There are a few fades to and from black through out the documentary, these are generally used to show passage of time.
Montage – Before the title appears on the screen the audience see a montage of clips taken from the show. This is simply to grab the audience’s attention and persuade them to watch the whole show.
Archive Material
Manson’s music video
Footage of Italian talk show
Shots and filming of newspaper cuttings
Graphics
Names and date – Graphics were used throughout to inform the audience of the speakers name and of the date.
Introductions – There were graphics used when, usually when a new person was introduced to the documentary. This helped to anchor the meaning the person had to the subject and narrative of the programme.
Time passage – Graphics were also used to present passage of time.
Title – The graphics included in the title where important because already at the very beginning of the programme the theme of juxtaposition and good versus evil is being foreshadowed. The font used for the text has huge connotations of evil; the text is some what gothic and creates weariness. However in contrast to this we see a small image of a cross appear in the title which links to the theme of religion.
All the graphics used where the same bold white text. The graphics were all very plant and were clearly there for the only purpose of proving information. They were deliberately simple as t not attracts the audience’s attention away from the subject or person.
That Thing Analysis
Type of Documentary:
. Mixed – consisting of interviews, achieve material and has the use of a main voice over which holds the whole narrative together.
Theme:
.Power of the Media – In this case we look at the case of computer gaming and the power they have in empowering women.
.Feminism – The documentary looked into the visual appearance of Lara croft. Is there a certain amount of pressure on women to have to perfect appearance? Stereotypically Lara croft has a tiny waist and large chest.
Icons – Representation of women in general.
Narrative Structure:
.Non Linear – no time line involved at all throughout the documentary
.Closed narratives - In that there were no questions left in the audiences mind unanswered.
.Single strand - One consistent narrative running through out the programme.
Camerawork
.Interviews – The documentary showed creativity with the use of camera angles in the interviews. We seen Big close ups in the interview with the creator of Laure Croft, Medium close ups and tilted frames.
.Point of View Tracking shot in the room with a lot of computer gamers.
Mise-En-Scene
.Interviews – the interview with the creator of Lara Croft was treated differently from the other interviews. Cleverly he was presented as an actual computer game character himself, with a computer screen around his face.
.Cromeky – this was used in the back ground of a lot of interviews, with either filed footage or game footage being played in. It is also important that the background was deliberately out of focus, perhaps in an attempt to draw the audiences attention to what is actually in focus.
.Front projection on face of women being interviewed – This is possibly used in order to make the interviewees face appear to be in the game being played in the background. To create this effect the producers would have simply placed a project in front of the interviewees face.
Sound
Voice Over- The voice over is male and speaks in Standard English with young sounding voice. The age of the male providing the voice over is important as it reflects and is appropriate to the contents. It sounds almost as though the voice over man who is the type of person to actually play on of the video games.
Music – When the images are playing into the background there is a lot of music throughout. Throughout the whole programme there is a variety of different music playing. The music played seems reasonably modern, the music in particular convey the idea of a young target audience. We hear dance music that seemed to turn into Madonna’s music track. This Madonna music was used as in relevance to a comment that was mad about her in the programme.
Music from the sounds of the game
Editing
Fast motion – the editing was done as so the camera seemed to be the audience speeding round the room. This was a major example of a point of view tracking shot.
Superimposed – The interviewee was imposed on top of the footage of the game playing in the background during an interview.
Angelina Jolie – Through the programme we see snaps of an interview with her, the editing is clever in that the interview is filmed in medium close up, however there was one part which showed a close up f her face.
Cut - Throughout the short documentary there was a fair few amounts of simple editing techniques used, for example the use of cutting. This is to not draw the audience’s attention away from the subjects or person in the documentary.
Archive Materials
Website shots
Fan Forum
Recorder emails on screen
Extracts from the game
Nike advert
Angelina Jolie – Footage of an interview with Angelina Jolie.
Graphics
Conventional – There was a conventional use of graphics throughout the documentary, for example the way that the graphics appeared on the opposite side of the screen of that with he person was on.
Interestingly the graphics were specific in the use of no capital letters at all. However the name of the person appearing in the documentary’s name was in larger font, and then occupation or relevance the person played to the subject of the documentary was in smaller font.
Title – the title was in speech bubbles, this suggest discussion and is unique for the programme.
The Music Biz
In today’s lesson we began watching a new documentary, this time one based on the music business and also marketing, in particular Meatloaf. After spending all of today’s lesson watching the programme we will think about the theme, type of documentary, narrative structure and other features tonight and then make notes on it in tomorrow’s lesson.Type of documentary
Mixed – Voice over
- actuality footage
- interviews
Themes-
- Marketing
- the music industry
- manipulation of audiences
- power of the media
- the way meatloaf’s image is sued to influence the buyers
Narrative Structure
- Non Linear
- Single stand
- Closed narrative
Camera work
- Low angle shots in board room
- Interviews use conventional camera work – close up or media close up used, other than in the interview with one man who sits side ways. Filmed in profile which felt strange and unconventional to the audience because we can not see his face, no eye contact is being made. This proves that the conventional rules have been broken.
- Hand held – Actuality footage – Camera is observing the press
- Point of view shot – the person holding the camera shows there VIP pass in front of the camera and to the bouncer. This gives the audience a feeling of exclusivity.
- Zoom and Pan - especially on still images – creative and interesting when the image is slowly revealed. This happened in images such as magazine covers and posters.
- Handheld – Part of press conference. We are not observing the media here, we are part of it.
Mise-En-Scene
- Chromakey – more commonly know as blue screen or green screen. This is used as a background throughout interviews and ensures the interview setting is relevant to what is being spoken about. The background is overlaid behind the subject’s interview.
Sound
- voice over –male, Standard English. Holds the narratives together
- sound effects, E.G heartbeat
- Music – tense sounding music in background
- No sound in the background when the interviews are taking place and all questions have been edited out. This ensures not to distract audience listening.
Editing
- Cut – most commonly used throughout, simple editing keeps the audience paying attention to the subject.
- Dissolve – man dissolves in and out of interview
- Spinning Effect – used on newspaper and magazine shots
- Montage
- Fast motion – outside HMV. Public walking past in fast motion
- Slow motion – On meatloaf
Graphics
- Unique title
- Used to introduce new people to the documentary – normally displaying persons name and occupation
- Anchors relevance the person has to the topic
- Plain, simple, bold - Not to distract attention
Research into Documentarys
Types of Documentaries
Fully Narrated Documentaries
Fully narrated documentaries are commonly used in Natural History programmes or wife life shows. An off screen voice over is used to narrate the programme and make sense of the visuals anchoring the meaning, the voice over therefore links everything together to create the narrative.
Fly on the Wall Documentary
The most modern example of a fly on the wall documentary is probably ‘What Katie Did Next’ shown on ITV2. In this try of documentary the camera is unconstructive and films (in some ways observes) real life.
Mixed
In a mixed documentary the viewer will see a combination of interview, observation and narration in order to advance the narrative of the programme.
Self Reflexive
This is when the subject of the documentary acknowledges the presence of the camera and throughout the show speaks directly to the film maker whilst being recorded. Often in a self reflexive documentary we will actually hear audio from the person holding the camera so the view seems almost to be listening to a live conversation.
Docudrama
This is simply a re-enactment or reconstruction of events as they are supposed to happen.
Docu-soap
This is a common type of documentary, and example of which is ‘Air Line’. It follows a group of people and there daily lives, usually evolving around occupation. The people in the documentary can be come almost like minor soap characters, and the programme is often left on cliff hangers, persuading the views to tune in again at the next show.
Types of Narrative Structures
‘Construction of reality’ -
We concluded that construction of reality means that even though a document is filming the subject in ‘real-life’ the audience should remember that the programme is constructed for the watching audience. For example the fact that the documentary and filming is edited suggests certain parts of the footage being either taken out of the programme, or added in. Basically the producers and editors create an arterial picture of what they want t show. This then ties in with the term ‘gate-keeping’ which refers to the process involving the selection and rejection of information.
Structures -
Open
There are loose ends and questions unanswered at the end of the documentary. The audience is left to use there own mind and suggest there own opinion of the questions raised throughout the programme.
Closed – All loose ends are tied up at the end of the programme and there are no questions remaining in the minds of the audience.
Single Strand
This is when the documentary had just one ongoing narrative running throughout.
Multi-strand – in this type of documentary more than one narrative show be running throughout. The different narrative may sometimes cross each over or converge.
Linear
This is when the documentary follows chronological order. In simpler terms the events in the documentary follow the order of time.
Non Linear – Non linear documentaries are the opposite in that’s they simply do not follow the order of time. This is usually when we start to see flashbacks in programmes, or even flash forwards. This ties is with elliptical editing (meaning to cut out time).
The last narrative we looked at is possibly the most common in documentary making; Circular Narrative. This means that the programme’s start and ending points are the same. Circular narrative documentaries often begin with a question and throughout the programme the audience is provided with evidence which can be used to answer it. Generally in this type of documentary we get two sides to the narrative, but not always.
Fully Narrated Documentaries
Fully narrated documentaries are commonly used in Natural History programmes or wife life shows. An off screen voice over is used to narrate the programme and make sense of the visuals anchoring the meaning, the voice over therefore links everything together to create the narrative.
Fly on the Wall Documentary
The most modern example of a fly on the wall documentary is probably ‘What Katie Did Next’ shown on ITV2. In this try of documentary the camera is unconstructive and films (in some ways observes) real life.
Mixed
In a mixed documentary the viewer will see a combination of interview, observation and narration in order to advance the narrative of the programme.
Self Reflexive
This is when the subject of the documentary acknowledges the presence of the camera and throughout the show speaks directly to the film maker whilst being recorded. Often in a self reflexive documentary we will actually hear audio from the person holding the camera so the view seems almost to be listening to a live conversation.
Docudrama
This is simply a re-enactment or reconstruction of events as they are supposed to happen.
Docu-soap
This is a common type of documentary, and example of which is ‘Air Line’. It follows a group of people and there daily lives, usually evolving around occupation. The people in the documentary can be come almost like minor soap characters, and the programme is often left on cliff hangers, persuading the views to tune in again at the next show.
Types of Narrative Structures
‘Construction of reality’ -
We concluded that construction of reality means that even though a document is filming the subject in ‘real-life’ the audience should remember that the programme is constructed for the watching audience. For example the fact that the documentary and filming is edited suggests certain parts of the footage being either taken out of the programme, or added in. Basically the producers and editors create an arterial picture of what they want t show. This then ties in with the term ‘gate-keeping’ which refers to the process involving the selection and rejection of information.
Structures -
Open
There are loose ends and questions unanswered at the end of the documentary. The audience is left to use there own mind and suggest there own opinion of the questions raised throughout the programme.
Closed – All loose ends are tied up at the end of the programme and there are no questions remaining in the minds of the audience.
Single Strand
This is when the documentary had just one ongoing narrative running throughout.
Multi-strand – in this type of documentary more than one narrative show be running throughout. The different narrative may sometimes cross each over or converge.
Linear
This is when the documentary follows chronological order. In simpler terms the events in the documentary follow the order of time.
Non Linear – Non linear documentaries are the opposite in that’s they simply do not follow the order of time. This is usually when we start to see flashbacks in programmes, or even flash forwards. This ties is with elliptical editing (meaning to cut out time).
The last narrative we looked at is possibly the most common in documentary making; Circular Narrative. This means that the programme’s start and ending points are the same. Circular narrative documentaries often begin with a question and throughout the programme the audience is provided with evidence which can be used to answer it. Generally in this type of documentary we get two sides to the narrative, but not always.
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