Final: Critical Question

Critical question:

 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

As the first step for my documentary, I started with research, looking into their codes and conventions, theorists, the first documentary, ethical concerns and genres. I found that hand-held cameras are often used to covey realism and ‘truth’, and frequently uses a narrative journey in order to answer a question, applying Todorov’s Narrative theory. These were two key features I used in my documentary. The first documentary made, Nanook of the North, directed by Robert Flaherty, was the long form narrative film about real people and their lives. It was a silent film and created controversy when it was found that the film staged many of the scenes. I decided to rather use sound, alike to many more modern documentaries and did some further research on this topic alone. I watched various videos on the importance of sound in documentaries and, for my true-crime documentary, decided to use this to my advantage with unsettling ominous background music, as well as sudden cuts of silence when an important piece of information was revealed. I studied the documentary, Girl in the Picture, which was similar to the genre of documentary I was looking at, and found key features of the documentary that I planned to also incorporate, such as blurred videos and other people’s perspectives on the situations, such as the detective speaking to tell the audience about the day Olivia woke up. I researched the top genres for documentaries and found that true crime was the second largest genre of 24.9% in the industry, with historical being the largest at 31.8%. Looking back at magazines to help boost interest for my article, I found that interviews are often used to not just recite questions and answers, but build a relationship and connection between the audience and subject. Using this strategy, I asked meaningful questions that would lead the audience to want to learn more about Olivia after her difficult experience. For my social media, I wanted to include small parts of behind the scenes to give the audience a further insight into the documentary, creating an audience full of anticipation.

 

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

Documentaries focus on the process of: selection, choosing what the story will focus on, construction, the formation of how the documentary will be told, and mediation, the perspective which the documentary is told from. For my documentary, I focused on the social groups of victims and their families, and law enforcement, in order to create a true crime documentary. I aimed to tell the story of Amber’s kidnapping and show the vulnerability of the family regarding the situation, to show the impact that it had and continues to have on them. In order to do this, I started with a sound montage of the news reporting on missing people, followed by a cut into Amber and Olivia’s introduction of themselves, in order to set the scene. The lighting I used found that it gave the individuals a certain exposed appearance. Later on, I used a voice over of the lead detective to give more context, and show what would continue to be told in the documentary, being the entire true story about the long journey of finding Amber. I chose not to have a video of the lead detective, in order to convey a sense of the unknown, and subtly show how the detective did not want to be seen as this may put him at risk of showing his identity. Throughout most of my documentary, I used suspenseful background music, but only had this playing at a low volume as I did not want it to distract from the documentary. Yet, at various points I cut the music suddenly off or with a fade to draw even more focus to the dialogue. By using these techniques with the sound, it positioned the audience to be focused and longing to know more. The true crime genre allowed a mass audience interested in this genre, to appeal to a wide range of individuals.

 

How do your products engage with the audience?

My documentary will be released on Netflix through SAM Productions, therefore, for the audience demographic, its primary audience is aspirers, as they are often drawn to high drama content, and would also follow the documentary online via social media platforms, such as on SAM Productions. If there were any competitions for early screenings, aspirers would enter. The secondary audience would be explorers, who know about the case but would like to learn more. For my documentary, most individuals in their late 20s and older would be aware of the case when it happened, and so would want to find out more now that it has been solved. Thirdly, the tertiary audience would be mainstreamers, those that have heard about the documentary online and would want to be part of the discussion through social integration (Uses and Gratifications theory). This would be influenced by the theory of Participatory Culture as audiences would want to be involved in the conversation and, in today’s generation, sharing opinions online through social media is a common activity, such as through X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok or Instagram. All these different audiences would follow SAM Productions’ Instagram account to find out more, with the primary audience most likely to read the magazine article. The use of emotive music and dramatic effects in the documentary would captivate the audience, and the black screens with white text draw in the audience to focus on the documentary, such as the moment Olivia cannot continue talking so a screen comes up to say what happened next.

 

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

For my branding, I created my own production company, called SAM Productions, which stands for the initials of my name. SAM Productions will be a production company that specializes in the genre of true crime Once I created this idea, I created a logo that could be used for my documentary, then followed this through to my magazine article and social media page so that the name became easily identifiable through brand identity. For my social media page, I decided to create the Instagram account based upon SAM Productions instead of the documentary itself as, from research, most documentaries do not have an individual account, but are rather promoted through their production companies or the accounts of where they will be available, such as Netflix. If my project was to go further, Netflix would ideally post about the new film being released. From their Instagram account, I found that they created short videos through reels to promote the film further, so this would be a clear element used for my production. For my documentary, I wanted the name to be clear yet mysterious, therefore The Forgotten Night in Castle Combe suited it well. I aimed to make sure the name of my documentary was clear on my Instagram account; in addition, I changed the font to italics and bold in my magazine to make it clearer to the audience.