I N W H AT WAY S D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E L O P O R C H A L L E N G E

F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S O F R E A L M E D I A P R O D U C T S ?

Danielle Ferrier

Before creating my own documentary product I watched various other

documentaries which highly influenced the way I created mine. One of the biggest

influences for my documentary was 'Capturing the Friedmans', whilst watching this

the main element I really liked was how it switched between characters answering

questions from interviews and expressing their opinions. Therefore I decided to use

this technique within my documentary. As I have only created the 5 minute

introduction I chose one interview question to include and swapped between myself,

my mum and my best friend to show the contrasting answers. I feel as though this is

effective as its more interesting than just listening to each interview individually, it

also allows the audience to gain more information and gain an understanding

quicker as each character does show the same opinions and emotions. Watching

other documentaries helped me to realize how I wanted the overall documentary to

flow, in 'Capturing the Friedmans' it builds up to the actual conflict. As i felt this

technique was effective I wanted to take this approach with my own, therefore giving

the audience an idea of what's going on yet not jumping straight into the conflict

areas.

The way I filmed my documentary was decided after researching

other documentary directors such as Rakesh Sharma. I didn't want

to be intrusive of the people I was filming so that the footage was

more natural, due to I got this technique from other techniques this

is one of the ways in which i use the conventions of real media

products. As my documentary followed the narrative of me

confronting my parents on particular events I chose to film it in a

Partipatory Mode; which is one of the modes by Bill Nicholls. This

meant that I would be seen and take part within the filming of the

documentary which would allow it to have more reality as the

audience can clearly see that it is actually me creating the conflict, I

could show more emotion and allow the audience to recognize

particular bonds as well.

Overall I feel as though my documentary is quite similar to other

media products in the same category. However the only reason why

it challenges the conventions is that there isn't many documentaries

where in fact the child is confronting the parents. Thus this makes

my documentary quite unique and different as adults don't realize

that sometimes the decisions they make can effect the way their

children grow up. Usually teenagers are stereotyped to have an

attitude and up to no good, yet in my documentary you can clearly

see that I don't fit that stereotype in fact I'm just a normal teenage

girl. Therefore it creates the code that those teenagers that do fit

the stereotype may be due to the way they were raised and the

various situations they may have been put through.