In the beginning of most documentaries, the narrator eases into the subject by introducing the subject.

For our 5 minute introductory documentary topic we chose the effect of video game violence on players especially teenagers. Research into different documentary modes by Bill Nichols has shown there are 6 documentary modes when creating a documentary; poetic, expository, observation, participatory, reflexive and performative. Documentaries usually have a aim of having one of these modes however theres normally a mix of a few throughout the documentary.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Bill Nicholls Documentary Modes
The poetic mode is based on early French impressionist cinema, this mode is concentrated around mood and tone and quite formal along with a sense of location in time and place. This mode stresses mood and tone more than displays of knowledge or acts of persuasion Is opposite to the conventional method of continuity editing and has a sense of a specific location in time and place. Documentaries in the poetic mode leave out traditional content such as individual characters and events that remain undeveloped so a particular mood or tone can be created.

The expository mode address the viewer directly, with titles or voices that illustrate a perspective show sides of an argument or tell a story from he past. Uses either voice-of-God commentary where the speaker is heard but never seen, or voice-of-authority commentary where the speaker is heard and seen. Emphasizes the sense of objectivity and a well supported argument.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Bill Nicholls documentary modes
In the participatory mode filmmakers appears as actors in their own work and are visible to the viewer. They are freed to openly discuss their perspective towards the film being made. The documentary can be challenged with rhetoric questions and arguments from both perspectives to really make the viewer think. The film almost becomes a way for the filmmaker to show their agenda. The reflexive mode considers the quality of documentary itself, demystifying its processes and considering its implications and shows awareness of the process of reading documentary as well as engaging actively with the issues of realism and representation. This mode acknowledges the presence of the viewer and the thoughts they arrive at. Finally the performative mode engages the filmmaker in the story creating an autobiographical description of biased truths that are important to the filmmaker. Morgan Spurlocks Supersize Me is an example of this because it tells the side of the fast food industry from his point of view convincing the audience to follow the same thought patterns.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media class has focused on the narrative perfomative documentary called Supersize Me produced by Morgan Spurlock which looks at the increasing obesity in America and blames the fast food industry. By watching this documentary I could see the basic layouts of a documentary and the building blocks on making a documentary. because it also shows the performative mode as the documentary is told from the filmmakers point of view to feed the audience knowledge and convince them to think the same as the filmmaker. The documentary is slightly reflexive as well because the aim of the documentary is to raise awareness about the effect of violent videogames on players especially children and teenagers who are easily influenced by what they see in the media. We used this documentary as a template for our own. Our documentary is aimed at video gamers and parents of video gamers and to persuade them to take note of what the consequences of such violent video games can be, before we started videoing for our documentary we carried out research into psychological affects of video gaming and how others have been affected by violent video gamers and come across many shocking stories.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our video documentary uses statistics which gives the audience a sense of realism because statistics bring facts and have a sudden impact on the audience, statistics are used throughout Supersize Me and we have used them in appropriate places to develop the forms and conventions of real media products. We also used the opinion s of students at a sixth form college and of an expert in the field of our topic which in our case was a head of the Psychology department to see an insight into their views when it comes to video gaming and the after affects. Expert opinions are used in many documentaries because audiences pay attention to people who are knowledgeable in a field because they know what they are talking about. We used rule of thirds and visual affects by slowing down and speeding up as well as repeating actions such as when Tom gets angry, these affects make the clip look professional and give the sense that time has been spent on making the clip look specialised. Another key aspect is the voiceovers and background music we used in the clip, this is important when making a documentary as the background music adds emotion to the documentary and without sound the documentary would be dull. Most of the music used in our clip was non diegetic however the clip of the Columbine massacre was diegetic. The backing track we made in Garageband was of a middle eastern based tune which we thought was appropriate as many of the war games are in the middle east and to do with the terrorism there. So this linked in with the music. We challenged the conventions of a typical media product because we didnt use jump shots and straight cuts throughout the clip , by using these camera techniques the clip does not seem serious but a lot more messy and because our topic was facts and serious we decided to not use the typical conventions.

Rule Of Thirds

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Magazine
I have labelled in some ways how our double page spread resembles that of a real media product. We have used images and text as well as lettering appropriate to the topic by having blood splatters it indicates violence. Under the pictures we have anchored captions to let the readers know what the images are about and we have used a simple black and white background so the images can stand out. Imagedocumentary Many from magazines are bold, clip and eye catching we have challenged this convention by using simplicity and minimalism so the topic is brought to the reader without a lot of decorations around the magazine to distract them.

Subject heading (title)

Images Caption

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Radio Trailer

Our radio trailer applies all conventions of a real radio trailer as we jump between voiceovers and use quotes from the clip in our trailer as well as the background music to let the audience have a sneak peak of what they are going to see on TV. We have included out times of 9pm which is where the watershed time starts because our documentary contains violence which is inappropriate for young children and is mainly aimed at adults to advise them that too much video game violence can affect their children. Before we made the video trailer much like our magazine and documentary we had to carry out research into what radio trailers are like by listening to popular radio stations such as Capital FM. We then based the script of your trailer around what we had heard. By using voxpops from our documentary this gives the audience an insight into what is to come on the documentary and leaves them wanting more and interested.