evaluation question 1: codes and conventions

EVALUATION QUESTION 1: CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Joe Morton

The Documentary...

Interviews Television documentaries rely on

interviews, which can be used to make a contrast of observation sequences. Interviewee is either seen or unseen. Speaker is questioned and address the interviewer, not the audience.

Interviews

The interviews follow convention as the interviewee is either placed on the right or left of the shot and also answers questions to the interviewer across the shot. In this case from right to left. The rule of thirds is also used when placed the interviewee in the shot.

The Mise en scene of the shot is made by adding the boxes of chocolate to the right hand side of the shot and also graphics are used to show the occupation and name of the interviewee. Also the interviews follow convention as each interviewee repeats the question before answering.

Type of Documentary

The documentary we made followed the conventions of most documentaries as it was a mixed narrative documentary meaning it consisted of both interviews and voice overs. This helped get different points of views into the documentary and mean that it wasn’t biased towards certain views.

Lighting

High key lighting is used to stick to conventions of interviews.

Also, Archive material in the form of newspaper articles is used to add some facts to the documentary and also these link in to the interviews with the doctor and with the Dentist.

Sound

The voiceover used for our documentary follows conventions of the documentaries we watched as it had a males voice that uses standard English.

We also used the same person to record the voice over for our Radio advert to follow conventions.

The Radio Advert...

Narrator

The narrator used for the radio advert is the same as that used for the documentary this keeps with convention.

It is also a young male voice that uses standard English and has an interesting tone of voice to keep the viewer enticed.

For the ending of the radio advert the voice over’s tone is altered when he says the scheduling to help it stand out to the listener.

Music

For the music used in the radio advert we used a song called chocolate by snow patrol which kept in with the topic of chocolate.

We also found an instrumental version of the song to keep in with conventions as the words would distract from the voice over.

Extracts

Outtakes from the documentary are used in the form of sound bytes from the vox pops. This adds a taster of what information can be expected in the documentary if the person chooses to watch it.

Also, to follow the conventions we chose to begin the advert with a question to grab the listeners attention.

The Print Advert...

Image

One main image is used that is eye catching and also the image is of a girl covered in chocolate and this helps anchors the text saying “Chocolate Covered” also the fact that the person is smiling helps anchor the “Love” of chocolate. The advert is landscape which follows conventions.

Logo

The Channel 4 logo is positioned on the right of the page and is also positioned horizontally in the centre. The colour scheme also matches the colour of logo and in this case it coloured brown to match the topic of chocolate.

Text

The title and slogan is placed on a solid block background to match conventions of channel 4 print adverts and the colour of the background also matches the colour of the logo. The Scheduling is also featured here. Words are kept to a minimum to avoid boredom and also if the advert is put on a billboard it will make it easier to read as people are driving by. The positioning statement is catchy and memorable and also links into the documentary.