Ancillary Task Deconstructions 2: Feedback

Upon completing my second Ancillary Task Deconstructions, one of the main aspects of documentary advertisements is the use of a minimalist approach. For example, the advertisements often feature only one simple image followed by the time, date and channel in which the documentary will be featured on television. Due to this common aspect, for my advertisement, I have decided to follow this common convention when creating my advertisement.

In addition, despite the minimalist approach, I also noticed how each advertisement I deconstructed followed a house-style colour scheme relating to the theme of the documentary - e.g. One Born Every Minute featured blue text, relating to the medical aspect of the programme. Therefore, due to my documentary being about teenage rock music fans, I will follow a house-style colour scheme that links to this theme - e.g. stereotypically, dark colours are associated with rock music and fans of the genre. 

Ancillary Task Deconstructions 1: Feedback

Upon completing my first Ancillary Task Deconstructions, I have learnt what conventions are commonly found in double-page spreads in listings magazines, furthermore informing me of what conventions I will need to include when completing my Ancillary Task.

Some of the most common conventions that I have found include the use of colour to represent the documentary that is being advertised through the article - e.g. in the article about Bowie, the colours white and various shades of Blue have been used as the house-style for that particular article - linking to the colours presented in the image of Bowie as the Pierrot Clown - the colours are often associated with Bowie of the "Ashes to Ashes" era in which the photograph takes place. 

In addition to a house-style that matches the theme of the documentary, on each documentary article, there are multiple images - either linking to the documentary, or still shots from the documentary. Because of this common convention, I will make sure that in my listings magazine article, I will include several photographs, including still-shots from the actual documentary. 

A feature that is common among articles is the use of pull-quotes, drop-caps and straplines. To make my article appear professional, I will also includes conventions, such as the ones mentioned above. 

Ancillary Task Deconstructions 2

One Born Every Minute - Channel 4
This is a newspaper advertisement for "One Born Every Minute", a documentary showing the lives of families as a baby is born on channel 4. The advertisement takes up half a page of the Newspaper and is of a simple, yet comical format. The advertisement is mainly a comical image showing several babies on what seems to be a conveyor belt. The comical format is in reference to the lives of the midwives that are shown each week and how hectic their jobs can become.
The advertisement has a simple colour scheme of mainly white and blue - the white could be in reference to the innocence of babies when born, whereas the colour blue is not only the house style of channel 4, but it is also a colour often associated with midwives and hospitals in general. The use of both these colours have both associations with Channel 4 in general, but also the documentary, making it a good, solid housestyle - the colours also compliment eachother, instead of standing out bold.

Dispatches: Undercover Mosque - Channel 4

This is another Channel 4 documentary advertisement in a newspaper. The advertisement is for a documentary called "Dispatches: Undercover Mosque" shown on Channel 4. 

Like the previous advertisement, this one features a very simple colour scheme of simply black,white and grey. The use of these colours, in my opinion, could be in reference to the documentary and how it is going to provide the audience with facts.The layout of the advertisement represents how important and factual the documentary is; the use of the document-style layout with the sheets of paper and the paper clip also further reference the fact that the documentary was made in order to provide facts. The simplistic bold text "Radical Islam has a message for Middle England." also supports this observation. Like the previous deconstruction, this advertisement features the Channel 4 logo to the right side of the "document". Doing this allows for the Channel logo to not affect the look and importance of the layout in order to get a factual and serious message across. 

Life After Armageddon - Channel 5

This is a Channel 5 advertisement of several different documentaries - however, primarily focusing on the documentary "Life after Armageddon". Unlike the previous deconstructions, the main part of this advertisement shows one large image/still shot taking from the "Life After Armageddon" documentary. The use of the image, although not giving any real insight into the subject of the documentary, gives readers of the newspaper a small insight into what the documentary will feature - although I believe that the message being portrayed through the image seems confusing and unclear. Below the main part of the advertisement are several other smaller images to match with the other programmes and documentaries shown on Channel 5.

The overall advertisement's colour scheme is red and white; the use of the red and white references Channel 5 - as red and white is the house style of that particular TV channel. The large Channel 5 logo, being possibly the first thing you see when noticing the advertisement, makes it clear that the programmes are from that channel. 

Ancillary Task Deconstructions 1

Bowie: The Five Faces of Bowie - Radio Times

David Bowie - Five Years 

 This is a double page spread promoting the BBC documentary "David Bowie - Five Years", which focuses on five separate years that shaped Bowie's career. The article in whole doesn't focus as much on the documentary as one would expect, however, it focuses on one of the years that is primarily mentioned in the "Five Years" documentary - the era between the release of "Hunky Dory" and "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." The double-page spread consists of an image of Bowie in his Pierrot Clown outfit from the "Ashes to Ashes" era on the right hand page with the text justified to fit round Bowies hand. The overall colours of the image are mostly cool colours - consisting of white and various shades of blue, along with the occasional black and red. The house style is also reinforced with the scans of the letters that Bowie sent to the Radio Times writer, Steve Turner - also the writer of the article. In addition, the blue has also been used for the title of the article - "The Five Faces of Bowie" - the "Bowie" part of the text being in a much larger font than the rest to draw attention to the fact that the article is about Davie Bowie. The "The Five Faces of Bowie" is in a smaller font which is all inside the "O" of "Bowie"; as the title is references the different "faces" of Bowie, the "O" of Bowie could represent the Face/Face shape. Above the title is a strap line: "Who is the real David Bowie? From the suburban boy to sell-out at the V&A, Steve Turner followed Britain's most mysterious rock star every step of the way." The pull quote is in simple black text, with Bowie's name in bold - this, in addition to the above point about the title, draws attention to Bowie's name to grab attention of fans/readers.
The article is about the "Hunky Dory"/"Ziggy Stardust" era from Steve Turner's point of view, which is why the first paragraph is justified around a photo of him - despite not entirely mentioning the documentary in the article itself, the essential information of the BBC documentary and what date and time it is aired. Having the essential information of the documentary above the article puts emphasis on the fact the article is promoting a documentary.
The article, unlike most, doesn't start with a drop caps - instead the drop caps is a few paragraphs into the article. The paragraphs before the drop caps are a lengthy introduction of how Turner met Bowie and become involved into his career. Once this his been described, the main article talks about one of the eras that the documentary focuses on - the era of "Hunky Dory" and "Ziggy Stardust" - from Turner's point of view. There is a pull quote from Bowie also used beside the image of him - the pull quote is from an interview done with Turner in the early 1970s - something that most likely would have been mentioned in the documentary.

The Story of Now- ITV
Now, that's what i called music! - Radio Times
This is a double page spread promoting the ITV documentary "The Story of Now". The documentary is about Richard Branson and the story of Virgin Records. The article, like the previous documentary article, sets the scene of the music industry in the '70s, intertwining quotes from an interview that the author of the article had with Branson to further set the scene/tone of the article and therefore the documentary. The main title of the article "Now, That's What I Called Music" is simply placed at the top of the two pages, in a black font, with the word "Called" in red. The use of the black and red links to the logo of Virgin (Virgin Records), setting a house style for the article which features mainly black text.The house style colours are also seen in the photo on the right side of the double-page spread on the tape that Branson is holding, drawing together the text and the image. The use of the red for "Called", along with the link to to Virgin logo, also emphasises on the fact the documentary is about something that happened and was created in the past - Virgin Records - and is therefore a look-back onto both the company and Branson. Below the title, is a strapline "Richard Branson reveals the true story of Virgin Records - and makes Danny Baker the offer of  a lifetime..." The names Richard Branson and Danny Baker are both in bold font in order to grab the attention of anyone who is looking through the listings magazine. In addition, after grabbing the attention of readers with the bold names, the use of phrases such as "reveals the true story of Virgin Records" further entices the reader into wanting to read the article - and therefore watch the documentary. The ellipsis at the end of the strapline leaves the readers abruptly in order to make them want to read on, almost as if the article is letting them into inside information - a common feature that magazines do.
In the article, there are two images been used; the main image consists of Richard Branson holding a "Now, That's what I Call Music" tape with another man who is holding a record signed by Branson. Although the image is mainly on the right hand page, there is a slight overlap where the other man's arm is on the left hand page and the text - all on the left hand page- is justified around it. The use of having the image so big, as mentioned with the bold names in the strapline, is a technique used to grab attention; although, the large image could represent how important Branson is. There is also a pull-quote placed on the shirt of Branson in the main image. The pull quote - "The girl in the shop? She became my wife" is a quote from Branson. As the quote doesn't nessecerily give out any information, it makes people want to read the article and watch the documentary in order understand the context of the quote. In addition to this image, there is a smaller black and white image on the left page of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne with Richard Branson. The use of the black and white image could represent how long Virgin Records has existed. The image also could grab attention as Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne are well known celebrities.
The article begins with the name of the documentary along with the date/time and channel in which it is aired. This information is separate from the article in order to make clear to readers when the documentary is aired, so they don't need to go through the whole article in order to get the essential information - as the article is mainly there to simply back the essential information and intrigue readers. As the main article begins, below the essential information, a drop-caps has been used for the R in Richard Branson's name. Although drop-caps are mainly used to emphasise where the article begins, the R could represent the importance of Branson in the music industry. The overall article features both descriptive and quotes referencing the time in which Virgin Records was established.

Road to Rio - Dave
This article is one that is advertising a documentary for Dave called Road to Rio. The documentary is about Mark Watson and Henning Wehn when they took a road trip across South America. Unlike the previous documentary articles that I have deconstucted, this article is set out very differently. Although the article features many colours, the most obvious/bold are the use of red and yellow - the yellow appears to be in reference to Brazil and the yellow on it's flag. The red, however, appears to simply be in reference to the main house style of the listings magazine. The article is split up into many different sections - there is a main, background information section, followed by six separate sections to reference the six episodes of the documentary and the six different countries.
Unlike the previous deconstructions, this article does not have a plain white background, instead the background is what appears to be part  of the world map that features South America - linking to the context of the documentary. Because of this feature, the first introductory text is featured in a simple white font in order to stand out enough to be able to read against the dark colours of the background. Above the introductory section is a strapline; "Footie-mad comedians Mark Watson and Henning Wehn take a road trip across South America". The stapline, as with most straplines, doesn't give out any in depth information about the article, nor the documentary. As the names of the comedians are in bold, it grabs the attention of the readers - the strapline then makes them want to read on, only giving a clue that the documentary is about football - further supported by the image of the world cup placed beside it.
Each of the six main parts to the article are about a different country and  feature a very similar layout - a large still-shot from the documentary - set out as if they are placed on a wall/pinboard - a smaller image of a footballer from that particular area, and a main body of text with a numbered heading of the country in red and yellow - the colours relating back to the house style of the magazine and the title of the article.

Genre

A documentary is a nonfictional motion picture, usually intending to document some aspect of reality. Documentaries are often used in order  to reveal an unusual, interesting or unknown angle. Documentary filmmakers are often motivated to make their films because they feel a particular story or viewpoint is not being covered by mainstream media.
Originally referred to movies shot on film stock, documentary film has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a television series.
The term "Documentary" was first applied to films of the nature of Robert Flaherty's film "Moana"(1926) published in the  the New York Sun on 8 February 1926 and written by "The Moviegoer", a pen name for documentarian John Grierson.

As I am doing a Documentary, I have researched into what conventions usually feature within a documentary.

Camera Shots:
In documentaries, at the start of a particular scene - mostly on lifestyle documentaries - there is an establishing shot to show where the scene is taking place - such as someone's house. In addition, as most documentaries include interviews, mid-shots and close ups are often used to focus upon who is being interviewed. Often in documentaries, there is no set camera shots - especially in reality/lifestyle documentaries. 

Sound:

Usually in most documentaries there is non-diegetic sound. This can be in the form of a voice-over narrator who guides the audience through the documentary, giving them background information on a specific topic. In addition, non-diegetic music is also used throughout documentaries during cut-scenes - often when an establishing shot is being shown. Documentaries also have diegetic sound which is in the form of interviews and scenes where what can be heard is what is being shown - e.g a conversation between two people or concert footage. 

Interviews:

One of the main features of a documentary is the interviews that take place. The interviews are often with people afflicted with the main subject of the documentary -e.g a documentary about a music artist will often feature journalists and other musicians talking about their work with the artist. The interviews can be in the form of a studio interview - often found in high-budget documentaries about celebrities, musicians, etc. However, in lifestyle/reality documentaries, the interviews often take place in a natural setting - e.g a documentary about a teenager may feature interviews that take place in their bedroom. 

Editing:

In documentaries, there are often straight cuts in between scenes of various lengths - usually long - as there is no need to create atmosphere as a horror film would. Another editing technique that is often used is transition screens between scenes to allow the audience to know that it is a different day/different person, especially used in reality/lifestyle documentaries. 

Archive Footage:
Often a documentary will feature both archive footage - e.g a concert or interview - and still images of the subject. 

Technicality of Realism:
The purpose of a documentary is to inform and tell the truth. Because of this, a documentary needs to include realism to make it factual.

Insituational Research

I did some research into different production companies that produce documentaries.

Institution	Details	Productions
Rogue	Rogue is a subsidiary of Relativity Media. It has around 25 titles in its library. It was formed as a division of PolyGram Pictures in 1997, however, the name was dropped in 2000 after Universal Pictures bought PolyGram.	·         Catfish: The Movie
BBC Cymru Wales	BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC, and the national broadcaster for Wales, Established in 1964. Based in Cardiff, it employs 1,200 people to produce a range of programmes for television, radio and online services in both English and Welsh.	·         David Bowie: The Story of Ziggy Stardust ·         Merlin
Reef Television	Reef Television is an independent production company, known for making high quality programmes. Reef producers innovative content for many broadcasters in both peak and daytime slots and has made hundreds of factual programmes for clients such as: BBC, Channel 4, Discovery, ITV, Channel 5 and UKTV. Reef develops ideas across a range of factual and entertainment programmes.	·         Now That’s What I Call Music (ITV) ·         ‘Britain's First Photo Album’ (BBC TWO) ·         ‘The People’s Museum’ (BBC TWO) ·         ‘Behind Closed Doors’ (Five) ·          ‘Britain’s Hidden Heritage' (BBC ONE) ·         ‘Thames Wildlife Superhighway’ (ITV).
Firecracker Films	Firecracker Films is a leading Television and digital production company which creates high profile documentaries. The company is part of The Tinopolis Group and is one of the leading independent media companies.	·         Big Fat Gypsy Weddings (Channel 4) ·         Wrong Turn: The Kati Kim Story ·         Diary of a Teenage virgin
Raw	Raw, founded in 2001, is a production company, creating popular and award winning shows for broadcasters in the UK and US including the BBC, Channel 4, Five, CBS, Discovery, Nat Geo and others.	·         Gold Rush (Discovery) ·         The Secret Lives of Students (Channel 4) ·         Paranormal Witness ·         Ultimate Guide to Penny Pinching

Moving Image Planning

Moving Image planning document

What emotional impact do you want your filming do have upon the reader? How?

I want my film to inform the audience of the effect music has on people – specifically teenagers – comparing them to their parents who may disapprove of their children’s love of music. I want the documentary to open the minds of people to rock music and fandoms, who may have disapproved of certain stereotypes previously – showing that fans of rock are not rebellious and to be frowned upon.

What personnel do you need? Who are you going to film?

For my documentary, I will need a group of my friends to take part in the documentary, being the main focus of the film. I will also need parents of the cast to be in the film also for interviews. For the documentary, I will need a director, producer, sound technician, light technician, editor, storyboard artist, and hair and makeup artist.

What props will you need?

The main equipment that I will need include a camera, tripod and microphone – I may require two cameras if I want the same shot from two perspectives – like in the interviews. In terms of the props that my cast will need, as it is a documentary, the items will be everyday items found in the houses of my cast – e.g. CDs, magazines, makeup, etc.

What lighting will you need? Any other equipment?

The lighting that I will need is mostly use of natural lighting and artificial – if filmed indoors. When interviews are taking place, I may decide to use extra lights if the household lighting is too dim and causes issues. The lighting would be high-key as, being a documentary, I don’t need to create atmosphere that low key lighting creates.

Where will you shoot? Will you need a backdrop?

The main locations that I will need to shoot include the house/houses of my cast – as it is a documentary about them and their lives. The interviews will take place in the bedrooms of the cast; the backdrop of the interviews will show their bedroom walls covered in band posters. If I can get permission to use a camera and film from the venues, I will also try and film in concert venues, showing concert footage of the band in addition to footage of the cast at the concert.

Make-up? Costume?

All of the teenage cast will be wearing their everyday, casual clothing – such as band shirts, hoodies, etc. Wearing their everyday clothing will provide realism that I want the documentary to show. In addition, the cast will be wearing makeup that they would usually wear – such as dramatic eyeliner, lipstick, etc.

Pitch and Audience Feedback

Here is the PowerPoint for my Documentary Pitch. I didn't include any detail in the actual PowerPoint as it would avoid reading from the PowerPoint in the actual presentation. 

I uploaded the PowerPoint to Slideshare and embedded it into the blog post.

From the feedback forms handed out during the pitch, I gathered opinions on my overall planning/idea for my documentary with people highlighting what they thought may be an issue with my overall planned idea. The feedback was overall positive in terms of my time scale and how realistic my planning was. The only issues that people picked up on was the possibility of filming during a concert - most concert venues don't allow DLSR cameras, which I will be filming my documentary on; in addition, taking a camera provides a possibility of it getting damaged or broken. In order to resolve this issue, I could contact the concert venue in order to ask permission to film for educational purposes and if possible, ask permission to interview the band or artist. However, if permission is not granted, I could simply film on my mobile phone or a handheld camera, providing that the video quality is good enough.

Audience Research Results

In order to find out whether my intended audience - teenagers - would be interested in my Documentary, I created a survey on Survey Monkey. 

This is my Survey

These are the results:

Main Task Deconstruction

Here I have deconstructed three documentaries:

Catfish: The Movie :

David Bowie: The Story of Ziggy Stardust :

My Chemical Romance: Life on the Murder Scene :


I have used Microsoft word and Scribd to do my deconstructions.

Main Task Deconstructions

Overall, from deconstructing these three documentaries, I have learnt and been inspired by a variety of features within. In terms of camera shots/movements/angles, I have found that all used basic camera shots - such as close-ups and mid shots for interviews, along with other shots such as establishing shots, long shots, etc. From this, I have been able to realistically envision how my documentary may look, and what camera shots would look good for certain scenes. In addition to this, I have found that both Catfish and Life on the Murder Scene mostly use handheld cameras - very rarely is a tripod used and a track is not used once - this is useful as it allows me to realistically be able to film, without it looking unprofessional, using my Nikon camera. In David Bowie: The story of Ziggy Stardust, a green screen was used for the background in the interviews, seeing this has made me realise that using a studio in order to film interviews will look out of place in my documentary - as using a studio does not reflect real life,like I want my Documentary to show.

In terms of editing, each documentary had cut transitions between different segments, the type of transition that I feel would look best in my documentary was found in both Catfish and Life on the Murder Scene. In these documentaries, a simple black screen was used with plain white text to indicate that the day/topic had changed and to give background information. This, I feel, would fit well with my documentary to give background information and also to indicate a new day (e.g. cutting from one scene talking about an upcoming concert, to the actual day of the concert). In addition, in both these documentaries, there were no fast cuts - fast cuts are usually to create atmosphere, etc, which neither of them needed - and many scenes lasted for quite a while before cutting to either a new camera angle or a new scene, which is something I will use in my documentary.

All the documentaries used both Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound, and therefore, I am going to also - in the form of background music - Non-Diegetic- and any noise/speaking happening during a scene being Diegetic. However, when researching the background information on Catfish, I discovered that two lawsuits had been filed against the documentary as it had music that hadn't been credited to those who created it. This has informed me that by using music in my documentary, I will need to contact whoever owns the rights to the music to ask for permission.