Wix blog started with placeholder images

Front page of my website. The background will be one similar to that of the movie "blue story" (seen above) however there will be the BBC 3 logo on the cornor or on the menu bar

Trailer thumbnail will be featured here with hyperlinked text to watch it and then buy/stream Documentary

page will feature credits where the names that worked on the documentary will be featured

Statement of Intent Draft

Statement of Intent Draft

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and meet the requirements of your chosen brief? (approx. 400 words) 

For my documentary, I will use media language to communicate my intended meaning. For example, there will be a lack of impressive edits and instead will just be basic cuts between two shots to portray a representation of realism which will influence the viewer that this documentary is featuring a very real and important subject to be taken seriously. The lack of fancy editing will also appeal to the middle-class 16-25-year-old demographic. There will however be text edited in producing vital information that is not said by the narrator, for example names, date, information etc, to adhere to the conventions of documentaries alongside interviews, narrator voice over and archived footage. This will adhere to Steve Neale’s genre theory as the audience will immediately understand and recognise this product as a documentary, specifically BBC3 documentary, due to the repeated conventions in similar documentaries, for example, the logo being featured in the documentaries. I will also use the mise-en-scene to set the mood of my documentary. Using establishing shots for example will set the scene of the documentary. This will most likely be an Ariel shot of a rural sea-side town and a more urban city, creating meaning with the audiences as it establishes the place and context of the action.

Product 2:

Similarly, for my website, I will also use typical conventions like a search bar, hyperlinked menu bar and social media links for the audience to easily navigate through. The colour palette will be mature to appeal to the target audience o 16-25-year olds. The website will also feature a hyperlink to go to the main BBC3 website and other BBC3 documentaries that relate to mine – crime and urban culture documentaries. My website will include exclusive features for the audience to engage with the product. For example, there will be a comment section where fans can interact with each other and discuss and debate about topics in the documentary. Some sort of contact, whether it will be an email or a social media account, will be available to direct viewers who have questions or concerns to communicate and interact with professionals, those featured in the documentary or producers – which presents media convergence. Lastly, in my website I will feature products from professionals that are featured in the documentary, for example books and podcasts, to present intertextuality in my website.

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production? (approx. 100 words) 

My documentary will be featuring anonymous tweets from those willing to share their story or opinions on crime and drug culture moving into the middle-class society. This will have been prepared before the filming of the documentary as those who want to be involved in the documentary will tweet using a specific hashtag which will then allow them to be featured in the documentary. Not only does this engage the viewers, it also creates an online presence for the documentary – building more hype for the documentary as those who are not familiar with the documentary may come in contact with their friends tweeting about it and may check it out for themselves.

Planning: First ideas

Draft Documentary Script

Narrator:

Gang culture among young people is nothing new. Youth gangs have been a major part of the urban cultural landscape since at least the 1830s, when Charles Dickens described Fagin's pack of young boys roaming the streets of London in Oliver Twist.

However, gangs have taken on a different character and have moved into areas unimagined by Dickens. Most significantly, they are spreading from inner cities to "edge cities"--cities at the outskirts of large urban centres--and to suburbs. 

Middle Class societies, seaside towns and rural areas are under threat. Urban gangs are targeting these areas whilst moving in from the cities to expand their criminal companies. 

Children as young as seven are being exploited by drug gangs, with youngsters from wealthy backgrounds increasingly likely to be targeted. 

Insert an interview clip of a police officer possibly explaining the danger with gangs, drugs and the effects on young people. – overdoses, turf wars etc (around a 20 second clip)

More children are being arrested for dealing class A drugs than for taking them, as they are used by organised crime gangs to traffic heroin and cocaine from cities to the countryside.

This film will delve into this ever-growing problem of gangs infiltrating middle class societies, causes, effects and more.

Clip of interview with “ex-gang member” talking about personal experience and further expressing the dangers. (20 second clip)

Fade into intro in which drill music quietly playing previously will crescendo as on a graffiti wall, the BBC 3 logo will appear at the centre of the screen which will disappear as model walks past it which will then reveal title of documentary

Continuation of Interview suggesting that the media is a major influencer for young people joining gangs

The glamorisation of gang and drug culture is a common argument when trying to understand the causes of those joining gangs. Movies, Shows and music are some of the media formats in which influence young people to engage with gang and drug culture.

(continued)

Generic research: language and digital convergence

How do media producers use language to communicate meaning?

Through the documentaries I studied and analyzed, I found that these producers use a range of media language to convey their intended meaning. For example, in the generic research 2, "Shame in the game", the media producers' use of a dull, sometimes monochrome colour palette conveys seriousness in the documentary. Not only is this featured throughout the documentary, but it is also presented in the thumbnail of the documentary, on the BBC 3 website - immediately conveying that this is a serious topic. It contrasts the more fun shows on BBC 3 such as "Hot property" which also draws attention to it. All of the documentaries I studied use varying shot types- which is a typical convention of documentaries- each carefully done to convey specific meanings. For example, the close- up shots of ex-gang member in "Escaping Gangs: death, jail, redemption" creates intimacy between the subject and the audience - evoking empathy.

How do media producers use digital convergence to link their products?

Media producers use digital convergence in several ways. The most common example of digital convergence I found in my researcher is the consistency of the BBC 3 logo within the products and on the websites, reinforcing the BBC 3 brand identity also. I also found that some shows have exclusive footage (e.g Vlogs, Bloopers, Behind the scenes, etc) that fans from shows would have to go to the website to watch, encouraging viewers to engage with the website.

Generic Research: Website Research 3

Website research 3 from EstherEnyinnaya

Generic Research: Website Research 2

Website research 2 from EstherEnyinnaya

Generic Research: Website Research 1

Website research 1 from EstherEnyinnaya

Generic Research Summation

Generic Research Summation

Documentaries are a way of documenting a nonfictional event/ issue that has happened or is happening. Theorist, John Grierson defined the term documentary as 'creative treatment of actuality', in 1926

Common Codes and Conventions

• Vox Pox
•  Interviews with people that are related to the documentary subject or with professionals 
• Narrator - voice over/ host exploring issue
• Handheld camera to convey realism
• Archive footage 
• Establishing Shots - setting the scene
• Close up - evoke intimacy with viewer and victim
• Simple editing - not to distract from the documentary 

Bill Nicole's 6 Mode of Documentary theory

The most used form of documentary film is the observational mode, as highlighted in Bill Nicole's theory, in which the filmaker is hidden behind the camera and has no intervention on the outcome in the documentary. This style is commonly referred to as the "fly on the wall" technique as nothing is staged or set up for the camera. I will use this type of documentary mode in my coursework as it fits the conventional mode of documentaries and it will interesting to explore this. However, I will also use the participatory mode in my coursework and this will be done through interviews. I will also use voice overs which is also a common feature of documentaries.

Audience Research Summation

Audience Research Summation

My Audience research consisted of multiple questionnaires and a focus group. In which I found that my target audience usually do not watch documentaries, they voted on a scale from 1 to 5 on how often they watch documentaries ( 1 being close to never) with the average being 2.36. With this information, I realized that I would have to make this documentary appeal to my target audience by perhaps catering it better than regular documentaries do.
I delved deeper and asked my selected audience that fit this demographic about what would convince them to voluntarily watch a documentary. In which all the recipients had a shared opinion - that the documentary have to be interesting. The general consensus of the group's most interesting topic was crime which fits well with my chosen topic - gang culture in middle-class societies.
Also, through my audience research, I found that my target audience is no longer engaging with documentaries through cable tv - and this may be the reason that my target audience is not engaging with documentaries as a whole. In this, I discovered that if the documentary is promoted more on social media and streaming networking sites they would discover more documentaries that meet their intrest and would watch them more. So in my documentary, I will provide multiple opportunities for digital convergence and for the target audience to interact with the actual documentary from their social platforms

Revision of Pitch

Revision of Pitch

In the light of your generic and audience research will you change/adapt anything about your pitch? 

My generic and audience research backs up my original brief generally. Audiences in the 16-25-year-old demographics would be interested in the theme of crime in the documentary so the topic of gangs in middle-class societies would interest my target audiences

It also fits well as a BBC 3 documentary as, proven with the generic research, BBC 3 focuses a lot of their documentaries on social issues, creating realism in my documentary

What ideas will you develop? 

I think I will focus on drugs in middle-class societies as an opener and an introduction to the documentary.

Generic research 3

Generic research 3 from EstherEnyinnaya