Documentary 'mini-task'

Documentary 'mini-task'

     In class we have been studying different documentaries but what exactly is a documentary? When I think of a documentary I think of something that sets out to present something as it is, in the most natural way possible however this is not just what a documentary is. A documentary can be many things and can fall under multiple categories, so you can't really say what a documentary is without looking at the many different forms of documentaries.

Expository Documentary

     Narration or a voiceover is a key feature in expository documentaries and will often having accompanying images where the voiceover will talk about what is being seen, giving strength to the pictures and giving them more meaning (but without giving any opinions.) A voiceover will often provide facts which acts as a caption for the images being shown and once again whilst doing this the voiceover will never give and opinion just facts to back up what is being said. The voiceover and images work hand in hand to deliver a stronger message of the purpose of an expository documentary. The purpose is to show the truth of something and present it in an unbiased way showing a transparent representation of the situation. A good example of this would be America's Most Wanted as in this programme it usually features footage of a car chase or something like that with a voice over explaining what is happening and why, giving meaning to the text and strengthening the images that are being played.

Observational Documentary

     Observational documentaries can include things like music, interviews, narration or any kind of scene arrangement but usually it won’t be included so the film maker’s presence is very hands off resulting in a fly-on-the-wall perspective. Often when filming for observational documentaries long takes and few cuts will be used and this creates the feeling of the viewer’s being able to witness the experience firsthand and gives the viewers a slice of life in that situation making it feel very real. Another element of observational documentaries which makes it feel so real is that the filmmaker and director are hidden form the audience so there is no intervention from them, they are just an uninvolved bystander making it seem more real. The purpose of this documentary is in the name, it is simply to observe a situation and present a transparent record of it in a neutral and non-judgmental way, leaving the audience to decide for themselves if they think it is right or wrong. A good example of this type of documentary is Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin's Chronicle of a Summer as the film starts off with Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin talking about whether or not it is possible to act sincerely in front of a camera and after getting together a cast of real-life individuals they discuss topics on the theme of French society and happiness in the working class. At the end of the movie they show their subjects the footage and have them discuss the level of reality they thought the movie obtained. So this movie tries to capture reality and observe upon it but in a very unique and experimental way.

Interactive Documentary

     In an interactive documentary the filmmaker’s presence is evident and they are a participant and will often present and interview some people within the programme. Throughout this particular documentary arguments and agendas are usually presented and it is more evident to see manipulation of the text through editing which is why it can often be criticized for misrepresentation and manipulation. It is defended by filmmakers due to the projected image being more important than fine details. Interactive documentaries can sometimes break some of the Ofcom code for Access & Privacy; it states in section 8.5 that “Any infringement of privacy in the making of a programme should be with the person's and/or organisation's consent or be otherwise warranted.” So any intention of invasion of privacy would need permission to be able to show it, it also states that “When people are caught up in events which are covered by the news they still have a right to privacy in both the making and the broadcast of a programme, unless it is warranted to infringe it. This applies both to the time when these events are taking place and to any later programmes that revisit those events.” So it’s important to consider these aspects when creating an interactive documentary. A good example of an interactive documentary is A Place for Pedophiles, presented by Louis Theroux. Louis was the first filmmaker to be allowed to film and interview the inmates at Coalinga state hospital so by interviewing them it already makes the filmmakers presence evident and causes interaction with the inmates and the audience so it 

fits in very closely and makes for a good interactive documentary.

Reflexive Documentary

     Reflexive documentaries heavily consider the qualities of documentary itself and attempt to expose the conventions to the audience. Once these conventions are exposed it attempts to experiment with them in many different ways resulting in some very different effects. Often reflexive documentaries will capture everyday footage but will then use them as tools to experiment with and make vastly different changes resulting in different and experimental films. A good example of this would be Man with a Movie Camera; although this may come under several documentary types I feel it best suits this one due to its experimental nature. Often in this documentary it will get every day footage and experiment with it using a variety of different cuts and transitions creating a disjointed feel in the way the shots don’t quite seem to fit together especially when you add the soundtrack adding a very distant and slightly mellow feel to the film this created by the fact that there is no continuity to it. Nothing like this had every been seen before so of course it was going to be regarded as being experimental and people wouldn’t know what to expect living up to the experimental nature of reflexive documentaries and fitting it well.

Performative Documentary

     A lot of the time performative documentaries concentrate on the presentation rather than the content and it will do this by using re-enactments, soundtracks and exaggerated camera positions to get the audience involved with the topic. As opposed to most other forms of documentary, the filmmaker is visible to the audience and free to openly discuss his or her perspective as long as it is relevant to the film being made and also it is presented in a very subjective, expressive and stylized way meaning they take control of the film. Dramatizations are re-enactments of the scene to try and show what happened when a person is talking about a situation, they can provide a good idea of what happened but the problem with them is that they can be manipulated depending on what someone has said. The other problem with dramatizations is the point where documentaries start to become fiction so it blurs the boundaries of the two. A good example of a performative documentary would be Night and Fog, a French documentary released in 1955 about the liberation of Nazi concentration camps which was written by Jean Cayrol, a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusuen concentration camp. This was written on memory rather than a story so would often use re-enactments of things the survivor could remember and included contemporary shots of the camps and stock footage, with the soundtrack composed by Hanns Eisler it falls into the category of performative documentary and fits well as it follows a lot of the key features of a performative documentary.

     When it comes to filming a documentary, depending on what you want to achieve overall would depend on what type of documentary you aim to make. For example if you were wanting to make something like a nature documentary, such as David Attenborough does, just to show how beautiful the world can truly be you would want a more light hearted documentary format such as an expository or observational documentary to show the world as it is with that soft accompanying voice over explaining what is going on. If you wanted a documentary to try and uncover the truth behind a story and try to uncover something you might go for an interactive or performative documentary type, providing that tougher feel to it such as how Louis Theroux might choose an interactive documentary type to try and understand the other parties side of things, it allows him to interact with them so not only he can understand it but we can as well. At the end of the day it all depends on what documentary type you wish to do and choosing the right one for the job by understanding the effect that each documentary type can create and using it to its full potential.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_and_Fog_(1955_film)

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/privacy/

Is television news a ‘Window on the world’? updated

Is television news a ‘Window on the world’?

     Television news is meant to appear to the world as unbiased and impartial but is it really unbiased, impartial and is it possible to present the news without any opinions at all? That’s the question I will be asking and also if the news can ever be a ‘window on the world’ and how accurate in can be without including opinions or biased viewpoints.

Starting Sequences, Sets & Presenters

     One of the most important ways in which television news appears to be unbiased and impartial lies within the starting sequences, the set of the programme and the way the studio news readers present themself. These all contribute greatly to how biased or unbiased a news programme may seem, for example in the starting sequence you will often get rushing CGI graphics of famous landmarks to connote that the news is being received from all over the world but if these rushing graphics only show’s British landmarks it would connote not being biased towards other countries but would more likely let the audience watching know that it is the national news rather than it being international. Another famous feature on starting sequences is that they are likely to be a lot of clocks which would connote that the news is up-to-date and has the most recent and most important facts and events on the show, but just by doing this it already shows some biased opinions, what is the matter with the slightly older events? Or even the less important ones? Often television news will also have transparent images in the starting sequence's to reinforce the fact that it's a 'window on the world' but by making this point of choosing more recent events or the event's deemed to be more important already shows that it's not quite what it appears to be and the news may not be what we believe it to be. This is just in the starting sequence but the way in which they do this creates a very clever feeling of us thinking that the news we are receiving is the most important and it is the facts that we need to know and without us knowing we have all thought this because of all the sub-conscious decision that we have made on the programme and we have already decided that the way the programme is made has to be unbiased and impartial without the first story even being read in detail yet.

    When we do get into the set with the studio news readers we find everything usually quite organised with the news readers already sitting there waiting for us, like we have just walked into a very important office meeting ten minutes late. It creates a mode of address to the viewer of being very important and crucial but instead of the news readers making us feel uncomfortable about being late they just dive into the first story and continue with business as usually once we have arrived. This feeling can be created in many different ways, one of which being the set itself. The set will often contain a news desk with the studio news readers setting at with a pile of important looking papers in front of them showing they are prepared for what’s to come in the next thirty minutes, also the set will often look very bland without to many bright eye catching colours and will look a lot like an office, this creates the very important, office and business like feel to the situation making television news feel very important, very powerful and overall a very manly feel to the news, making watching the news seem like a masculine thing to do, once again creating a flaw in the fact that the news is meant to be impartial and equal to both sides, although this has nothing to do with the stories it still creates that element of the news which you just can't shake. As for the news readers themselves they will often dress in formal clothing, a suit and tie for males and a formal skirt accompanied by a blazer for the females once again adding to the important business like feel that the news has to it. In terms of who the studio news readers are it can show a whole different side to television news, as when you look at news readers in different channels the can nearly always fall under many of the same categories. For men most will be older so between forty or fifty and will usually be white and middle class, when regarding to female's they will also usually be white and middle class but will tend to be younger often between thirty and forty. The age difference is simply because the nation is biased but will not admit it. When it concerns males old age connotes wisdom whereas with females the nation would prefer a younger female so it’s more attractive to look at as opposed to someone who is older. Also no matter on age, or gender they will always tend to be white and middle class and will speak standard English because other accents connote too much about the speaker. Just by looking at this you can already tell that the news isn't impartial just based on their studio news readers however most people will be concerned about if they are impartial to the news stories rather than who they are so when they read the news stories they will use a limited range of facial expressions to justify the fact that it is unbiased and they truly have no opinion on the subject. By making us feel this way it has already created a sense of trust in which we believe the studio news readers and believe what they are saying is unbiased and impartial.

The Legal & Regulatory Framework

     But news programmes still have legal and regulatory framework as well as government laws in which they have to follow, these rules are set in place by companies such as the BBC and Ofcom and in many of the BBC’s reports on the subject they say that impartiality is at their hearts and they even say that they are required to present due impartiality across controversial subjects although they go further than that and present due impartiality across all subjects, or so they say. This is meant to apply to all of their output and services, be it TV, Radio, Newspapers or the Internet it is meant to apply to all of them however I can think of one example where a news story might not be completely impartial.

     When a news story is shown it is meant to be shown as being impartial and not taking sides to a story however it is biased no matter what it does. News story can never be impartial just for the simple fact that they are being presented, when you present a story you must go through a series of choices to decide how you are going to do it, this simple fact makes it so that a news story can never be completely impartial so how do they go about this? They construct the story to cover up the fact that it is impartial and they do this with things such as the presenters. Presenters are meant to show the news with no biased opinion and show no favouritism to a side of the story and the do this by using the mode of address. With the mode of address the present themselves to be well dressed, well-spoken and in common ground where everyone can understand them creating a sense of security in which we can immediately trust what they say and end up believe what they say is the exact truth being presented in an unbiased way because of the way they present themselves and how they use the mode of address. However all of this considered the news is still not impartial although we might like to think it is.

     

It can be very difficult to present the news in an impartial way especially on the more controversial subjects but as a member of the BBC or any other news company it is surely your duty to follow the legal and regulatory framework set by the BBC and Ofcom as close as you possibly can without upsetting any kind of balance and remain impartial to the subject as much as possible in order to try and give the public the full story without any views or opinions of others getting involved. It should be but as we know it is impossible to remain 100% impartial and I shall continue looking at why and how they can get as close as possible.

News Selection Process

     The question that a lot of people will ask is how does a story ‘make the news’? Well firstly for a story to make the news it has to be found, certain sources will be monitored by news organizations so they are more likely to be found because the sources cover it, once found there may be 20 news stories to pick through. This is where the news selection process begins.

     The first thing they will consider when selecting the stories is the news values that each story contains, most of the time the more negative the news the better the news. Most news values were created by Galtung and Ruge who had the theory that all news stories must share similar news values and study the news extensively until they compiled a list of news values in which all news stories could be applied to and shows how news stories may be selected, some news values have been added in later years but most of them are the originals created by Galtung and Ruge. Some of the other big news values are unexpectedness, the more outrageous and unexpected the story the better the news, also Elite Persons. With a news story if it can be followed just by a name that everyone will recognize like Barack Obama then it is more likely to make the news because that way everybody will be able to understand it and know what is happening just from knowing the name of this one elite person. A final thing that will be thought of crucially is the composition of the report structure. When doing a news programme people will make sure that they have the right balance of everything in the show and although negative news usually makes the best news to much of it can just be depressing so this is why they have the lighter and happier story right at the very end of each show. Just by doing this it already show it being unbiased as it is selecting different stories over others because of the values in them and by doing this shows that some stories must be more interesting or more valuable than others and someone has to pick them, so already it shows that there has been some kind of biased opinion in the news just from selecting the news stories.

     Once they have looked at the news values each story has the will look at the availability of the equipment and similar things they have to cover each story, this could vary from how many camera’s they have available or even if they can get field reporters out there and connect links to the studio, even interviewing experts or eyewitness’ to the event. Most of the time in they cannot get these links they will scrap a story, some stories might not need interviews but if they are covering a controversial topic and need an experts opinion to keep the image of them being unbiased and impartial and they can’t get these experts in then it might not be worth the risk, or they might play it safe and only show facts and statistic to the story and although that shows them being accurate, it would seem a lot more professional and accurate if they could get an expert’s opinion, although as I have said not every story needs and expert’s opinion it does help to keep the news company as being seen as impartial, because people will trust that what the expert says is trustworthy and accurate but also that it is not the news companies opinion’s or views, it is those of the expert. Once the stories have been selected it is then time for them to decide how the story will be presented and in what way it will be portrayed.

News Construction Processes

     The news constructions process is much different to the new selection process, whereas in the selection process it's all about selecting the story the construction process is about making the story and how they create 'realism' within the story through the use of cutaway’s and edits to hid the constructed nature of the text with continuity editing.

     A good example is a story we watched in class about a rise in the rate of house reposition, which focus on a single family and a man named Pierre and how he was being evicted from his family home due to losing his job and not being able to find one. Now seemingly on the outside this news story may appear to be very touching and about a man trying to provide for his family and it is, however the way in which the story is presented once you look deeper into it you can fins hiding meanings to it and can begin to unravel this concept of realism that they have constructed and put together. It uses narrativisation to create this realism in which Pierre is the hero who goes on a quest to try and return back to the normality of his own life.

     It begins by saying about Pierre and his family and the unfortunate situation they have been put in, even showing us shots of the family and even play on our heart strings a bit by showing us the baby playing, creating this realism where you would expect this sort of thing to be normal and as the story progress's it becomes very interesting. Throughout the entire story you notice that the only person to get a close up shot of frame to themself is Pierre which shows him to be the hero of this story as he is trying to provide for his family. If we are referring to Todorov's narrative theory then Pierre being the hero has got to go on a quest to put a roof over his families head and provide for them as the disruption of losing his job has put him in this situation. When he goes off on the quest and speaks to a member of the council to try and return to normality he returns empty handed leaving them with no return to normality so the must deal with this new equilibrium of their modern life and try to make do until it can be fixed. By doing this to Pierre and portraying him as the Hero it cleverly makes us feel sorry for him and pulls on our heart strings in a very subtly way to which we don’t even realize it.

     Not only do they cleverly use the characters in the story, but they also make good use of the camera angles and techniques as well. When the news story first starts it gives us an establishing shot of the home in the middle of winter with Pierre walking towards his front door slipping on the ice, we are now clear it's cold and there's lots of snow and ice, it's then followed by a quick cut to the baby to make us realize that a child is being chucked out of the family home in the middle of winter. This is the only shot other than ones with Pierre that give the person in shot a whole frame to themself but this is used for good reason. To make us feel sorry for them. Once Pierre starts talking to the member of the council about the current situation it is then quickly followed by a over the shoulder shot, from the opposite angle to give a reaction shot from the Hero of the story at the disappointment of this story, but hang on how can they do that? Surely you can't have an over the shoulder shot showing a reaction without it being scripted right? Well wrong. This is a clever use of editing where the camera man will have just walked around the room observing the situation and that would have just been cut out in the editing in such a way that it looks like the conversation was fluent and didn't stop. It's techniques like this alongside a story like this that create this realism and creates the emotion to the situation, however although it creates realism, it does not show reality.

     Realism and reality are two very different things and are by no means the same so it is important to know and distinguish the difference between the two when it comes to things such as the news and documentaries. Realism has been defined as hiding the constructed nature of the media product and as I have discussed continuity editing can be a crucial part in creating realism for a media product such as news and documentaries. The way it works is the continuity editing is done in such a careful, clever way that we forget it has been edited together and we believe that this is what is happening however we do have to remind ourselves that this is not reality based on the sole fact that it has been edited together so therefore it must be realism as it makes it in such a way that we forget it has been edited together.

     Through the sole purpose of News Selection and News Construction it shows that news is not a transparent mediation of reality but is in fact a highly selected matter containing implicit viewpoints. This is shown multiple times especially in News Selection as to decided what stories should appear on the news you must make a decision and every decision will always have a little bit of influence from your personality on what you would want to see, what you think would make good news and what the audience would want to see. So therefore it is impossible to make a decision without some of your opinions or views creeping into it and the same goes for the News Construction process.

     When constructing a news story once again viewpoints will creep in, for example if a camera man is trying to get some actuality footage it is down to them to think what will look best, what will be the most effective and overall what to capture. By doing this he has to make some sort of decision once again containing his own viewpoints and opinions. Then once the camera man has got the footage it is down to the people editing the clips together to decide which clips look the best and which will work better so once again more viewpoints are coming into the final news story and it's impossible to avoid getting viewpoints in these stories. If this is all true and all these viewpoints do creep in and it's impossible to stop it I wonder does it matter and can we do anything about it?

What Can Be Done?

     Well the simple answer to that question is nothing. It doesn't matter how makes the news or how many people try it is impossible to present the news in an, impartial, unbiased, accurate way with a good balance for both side of the argument and no opinion's in a news story what so ever. Most of the decisions made during this process are made on a subconscious level so people won't even realize they are making them. Even if they are trying to make decisions with viewers interests at heart, one person’s interests will differ from the next making it physically impossible to cater for each individual persons needs as no matter what is selected there will be someone who doesn't agree with it.

     So what will be the next best thing to do? Well I think news stories have already answered this question. Try to appear impartial and unbiased. If they try to appear impartial and unbiased by creating realism to hide the constructed nature of the text, by doing so people will not be able to tell if it is actually biased or not but it will appear to be impartial and unbiased and a lot of this is down to the Studio News Readers.

     Studio News Readers will present the news in a way that seems unbiased, impartial and fair to add to the constructed image of the text by just reinforcing it as if it is being presented in an impartial way it will be difficult for the untrained eye to tell any different. By doing this they cleverly get around the fact that yes the news is not impartial and no the news cannot be 100% unbiased without any opinions. Obviously the views and opinions are still there it just they are hidden behind a mask of impartiality in which the Studio News Readers provide. But is there something more that can be done by us, the viewers?

The Impact of New Technology

     With a wave of new technology inbound almost every year the world is changing as we know it. In the last few years we have seen the invention of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and we have also seen the effects it has had on the modern world but has it had an effect on the world of TV news and is it even changing the way we consume news in general?

     Simply put yes, yes it is changing the way we consume news. With the ability of being able to choose the news we consume I feel this gives people a chance to voice their own opinion's really easily especially on something such as Twitter because all you have to do is read an online news article and click share and bang! You have just created your own bit of news. The strange thing about it is because we are not representing a company or anything we can express our own opinions on the news story without being judged to harshly for it and this is because we are individuals, we are our own person that has views and opinions on news stories as opposed to being a representative of a big company where we watch what we say.

     The big thing about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is that we can personalize what we watch or what we find out about. For example on Twitter we can follow someone who constantly posts the latest updates to news in the video gaming industry as opposed to someone who posts about political events. It's all to do with personalization and the fact that we know choose our own news, it's like being able to have a pick 'n' mix but with news stories instead, we can choose what we see and furthermore we can choose what is news.

     With such a wide selection to choose from how do we select what ones to have and share with our friends? Simply we choose which story we best like and with a click of a button it off posted to however many thousands of subscribers or followers you might have. This gives us the reins on choosing what news is, personalizing our own news and making our own news. It has developed onto something new and radical, new technology has definitely had an impact of modern day society and what can now become news, it's a big part of our life, I for one, wouldn't know half the stuff I found out about today if it wasn't for modern day technology and I am pretty sure most people will agree. By giving us control over what we can do it frees us from the limitations of having to be impartial and unbiased as we our making our own news for people all around the world and if they don’t like someone they can simple 'change the channel' by un-following us and going to someone else who discusses topics more to their interests.

In Summary

     With the impact of modern technology it's hardly a surprise that the way the news is being told has started to change; new companies are not just fighting each other anymore. They are now at war with the internet to win over the public, but the internet does not have the restrictions they do and they have the freedom to talk about what they please. It frees them from the bonds that have been formed giving them the ability to do as they wish, although the News studio for TV might be a highly constructed process that shows many flaws in its methods the news is changing with the power of the internet. It may have the same flaws as the TV news but this is forgiven when you realize that they can give an opinion ad they are not Studio News Readers or anything else of the sort. The news is changing with the world around us and adapting to modern technology although some people may not think so, it is. When it comes to the News Selection process it will still have the biased opinions that it already contains but its made okay by being able to personalize your own news and that goes for everything. The flaws are still there it's just more accepted because of the way the people and the public present it, we decide the news now and modern technology will decided the future of modern day news, as technology advances so will the way we tell the news but at the very bottom of it all the base values are still there the only thing that has changed is the way in which it has been presented.

Bibliography:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/impartiality/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-impartiality-introduction/

The Red Dot Production Schedule

22nd April 2013

     Today after our individual plans and idea's we have been placed into our groups for the project, I have been placed with Ben and Ollie. I feel I will work well with both of them as I have already worked with Ollie and I felt that went well and I have worked with both of them on projects outside of College so I feel comfortable working with them, hopefully things will go well and run smoothly.

29th April 2013

     After deciding last week that our project would be on YouTuber's and vloggers and how it impacts them, basing it closely around Ben as he does it, we started to edit some of the footage that Ben got from the YouTube meet up that he went to on Saturday and we even have a couple of interviews to work with as well as some footage to use as cut away's, we have still got to film around Ben's house on Wednesday and then that should be it, things seem to be going well

30th April 2013

     Today I tried to finish off the remains of the paperwork, we where given a sheet that stated everything that had to be done for the paperwork so I started to type that up, I finished the writing up and the rest of it Ben said he would do so paperwork should be finished soon, we start filming tomorrow.

1st May 2013

     Today we went round to Ben's to film for our three minute wonder, it seemed to go really well as we got all the footage needed from Ben we just now need an interview with Ben's parents and then that's all the footage we need. However after filming we encountered a problem with the Mac's, there was not enough memory to transfer the footage hopefully we will fix this soon.

2nd May 2013

     We still cannot transfer the footage over to the Mac's so we have decided to try and convert the footage into a different file type with the hope that it will then go onto the Mac's however the quality will be lower but it's not that noticeable hopefully by tomorrow we can start editing.

3rd May 2013

     Today after converting all the footage it still would not go onto the Mac's due to a lack of space, this is sinking into our editing time, we haven't got long till the deadline now, only two weeks. We should have this sorted over the weekend.

7th May 2013

     We finally managed to get the footage on the Mac's today thanks to Sean so we started converting all the footage into sub clips so we can use in editing, with that done editing can finally get under way.

8th May 2013

     Today we finally began our edit on the Mac's with the previous problem fixed we plowed on and everything seem to be going well, until we went to save the project but the files were corrupt and wouldn't let us save.... With another problem halting our progress we had to find a solution, fast. I took the rest of the lesson but we managed to fix it and hopefully we can get everything done on time. There's only a week left till deadline as of tomorrow so we have got our work cut out for us.

The Red Dot Production Schedule

Production Schedule: Three Minute Wonder

The Red Dot Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment: Three Minute Wonder

3 Minute Wonders

    To get a good understanding of 3 minute wonders for my very own 3 minute wonder I decided to look at some others that I found, here are some of my favourites and I will be looking at how they work and in what ways, what makes them powerful and how do the achieve this effect?





     The first one here is Karl Pilkington from the Sky 1 series An Idiot Abroad and in this 3 minute wonder he does live up to the name of being an idiot. It's simply him picking holes in modern day society and saying about why do we need to be fit or why do we need to worry so much and simply it is just him thinking about things to much. Although there is some sense among the madness that he says it doesn't seem like he thought it through that much. Admittedly though this is where I got the idea for my 3 minute wonder because a lot of the stuff he says I strongly agree with. I see this as being a bit of a rant at modern day society and how crazy and obsessed we have all become of the stupidest of things and I feel like some of it has gone a bit too far and this is why I based my 3 minute wonder idea of this one, because among the madness you can find some sense there.





     This particular 3 minute wonder is one of my favourites just because of how powerful it is. This man was been sentenced to death for killing four women when he was carrying out orders for his former gang. Now in this 3 minute wonder he also talks about the last supper and how you can eat anything you want to before being killed and how the death sentence as a whole doesn't really work out that well. He mentions about if he dies it's his family that suffers for it and there the ones that are left behind but they don't deserve that because they have done anything wrong, he is in some way mocking the system and it's ways of doing things. I find this one so powerful because of the subjects he talks about and the minimal amount of shots used throughout the 3 minute wonder, when he talks about his family and what will happen he seems to genuinely understand the consequences of his actions but says about how they effect his family more than him and it does get you thinking about what he is saying. It would be nice if we could try to achieve this same sense of power and get the audience watching to think about what is being said in my groups documentary however I feel we wouldn't be able to achieve anything as strong as this because of the topic being discussed but I do think we will be able to get the audience think about what is being said in some depth and this will be a good thing to achieve in our very own 3 minute wonder.

3 Minute Wonder Group Synopsis

Synopsis

Our group is going to make a "Performative Documentary" on a day in the life of a YouTube vlogger. We will set out to find a known vlogger and will organize an interview with them, asking questions of what it's like being a vlogger and why they expose their life to the world. Our group will take footage of the vlogger producing a video and the audio track from the interview will play over the footage to connote that the vlogger is speaking what they think, whilst making their vlog. Being a Performative documentary, it will consist of a series of cutaways to give the documentary a sense of feel. Some issue may arise from this documentary:

- Legal Issues: YouTube logo may be used.
- Technical Issues: Rushing Graphics and editing will occur

The primary target audience for this documentary is people who use YouTube and essentially vloggers. The secondary target could be media individuals. With the development in technology, most people can access professional equipment and software for a small budget.

3 Minute Wonder Idea

     My idea is a relatively simple one, My idea is to talk about modern day life and and the aspects of how life has changed in the past 50 years or so, I will be talking about things like sexism and how the Yorkie bar has been changed due to modern day views on sexism and also racism and how some of the jokes that used to be on TV are no longer allowed in case of offending some people, I will also be talking about a wider range of topics such as Music and how that has changed with the newer more modern music and also Film&TV in general and how there never seems to be any original ideas anymore, I might not be able to talk about some of these topics in the 3-4 minutes given but this is something I feel strongly about as it seems the modern day world we live in has become to over protective and not able to have a laugh about certain things and then when it comes to music, film and TV it just seems there are no more original ideas anymore so they thrive of the existing things that are good to make sequels or re-makes from to squeeze every penny possible, this is my idea for a 3 minute wonder and how the world has changed.

Iconography and connotations of TV news

The first thing you see hen the program starts is the headlining stories, immediately catching the viewers attention then it goes straight into a fast paced opening sequence to the news filled with Computer graphics and famous landmarks in London. There are many things in the title sequence and they are all used for different reasons, a lot of news programs will use transparent objects such as windows for the connotation of showing the truth without covering it up or even altering it but the only transparent objects shown are once inside the news studio and you can see London behind the news readers which shows the same connotation of being able to see the truth without it being altered but it is in the studio rather than being in the title sequence however in the title sequence and in the news studio are lots of images of London and it's iconic landmarks, this is to show that the news is from big places and is large, to show that the news is national, and also to show that it is important news from straight from England's capital.
 Although this particular sequence shows only London in the opening sequence their are many other news programs that show other city an by doing this it shows that the information is gathered from all over the world however because it is not done on here it leads you to believe that this particular news broadcast is going to be showing more national rather than international where as the BBC news will be showing international stories. Although there is nothing in terms of famous capitals they do show the world at the start of the news sequence which implies that the news program is covering the whole world so they don't leave out any information but they then do go into London to show famous landmarks with the most effective one being Big Ben and showing the clock face  This is because when seeing clock faces in a news opening sequence its implies that the news being shown is up to date, is fresh, important and the most recent event's going on.
     However before getting to the clock face there is a lot of fast motion graphics and camera movements whilst getting to the clock face itself which implies that this news is urgent and important, trying to rush things to tell the people about what has been happening and it works really well when you see these rushing CGI graphics going past landmarks such as the London eye and other places so you know know this news is going to be important and it's urgent news, it's a good way of getting the audience's attention especially with the fast paced music to go along side it, a combination of both manages to catch your attention and makes the audience realize that the news is urgent and they play well off of each other and a combination of all this technology shows that they are using everything they have got to get your attention and inform you of this extremely important and urgent news. They use many methods to get the audience's attention and another way they do it is before the opening sequence even starts they show you some clips of the top stories tonight accompanied by a male voice over  these voice over's will often be very manly and very powerful in order to grab your attention but it also back's up the urgency of the news being shown so it makes you more inclined to watch it because of how serious the tone of the voice over is and once again it backs up the urgency to the news whilst creating a very masculine feel to the news but these are only the ways done in the opening news sequence however news readers also have certain aspects to how they act and present the news.






















     The term news reader itself already presents us with an image of them, as in they just read the news and don't try to cover it up or hide anything they just read it as it is for the public to decided and also whilst reading it they do not show any other there personal opinions or views or the subject, trying to remain as fair as possible. There are many ways that news readers present them self as being fair and not being biased one of them is (as I have already mentioned) not giving their own thoughts of views to the news story, just reading it without altering it but how do they do this? Most news readers will speak standard English as it is seen as a neutral way to speak as other accents connote too much about the speaker. Also news readers will always use a limited range of facial expressions so that they make sure not to put there own personal opinion across however there may be a smile at the end with a lighter story and this just reinforces the impartiality of the rest of the presentation. By doing this News Readers present the news in a way that appears unbiased, reliable and trustworthy making the viewers trust that they are getting the information exactly how it is and not having it altered in any way letting the viewers decided for themselves what to think about the situation. By doing this alongside with the opening sequence news programmes create this feeling of trustfulness, truth and honest and allows the viewers to believe what they are saying and believe that it is the most important news across the whole world, they cover the fact that the news comes from all over the world in the opening sequence but how do they keep this message reinforced through out the entire program?



     Most news programmes well reinforce the message that the news comes from all around the world with the mise-en-scene of the set, It does it in the sequenced clip shown at the start of the post, having big famous landmarks in the background showing it's from key points around the world and then there is also the outline of a clock over this image to remind viewers that this news is up to date. However some will not have this for example the BBC news, instead it has a busy background with computer screens and people moving around to show it is constantly updating, so they effectively both show that it's up to date whilst being updated as the show goes on but they do so in different ways but one thing they do have in common is the main desk in which the News Reader sits at. This main desk creates and office or even business like feeling to it and along with how the News Reader presents them self with formal clothes it does create a sense of urgency and importance to it. Also the fact that the News Reader is already there waiting for the audience to come into the program before he starts reading the news makes it feel all the more urgent just by having them first for seconds of saying "hello and welcome, my name is.... and our top story tonight is..." This just makes it seem all the more important by just getting stuck into it straight away, The fact that the show opens and the news reader is already there makes it feel like we have just walked into a room, then looking around at the mise-en-scene of the set it suddenly seems a lot more serious, business and formal like than originally thought almost as if the audience has walked into a very important meeting but has been late to it and the news reader just sat patiently and waited for our arrival before starting the meeting this the type of feeling created by the whole mise-en-scene and the way the news reader presents it, making it feel very important, serious and it also creates a feeling of masculinity and feels like a very male thing to watch the news, this is all achieved through the starting sequence, the news readers and the mise-en-scene of the news program, this is all done in the effort to create a news sequence that just delivers the news to the audience in a non-biased way but as hard as they try there will always be some biased opinions that have came into the story at some point. It is almost impossible to create a non-biased news story but as far as it goes, they do a good job of just trying to give us the facts as they are to let us decide for ourselves, even if it is biased they do a good job of making sure it doesn't sound that way, allowing the audience to decipher it for themselves so they can decided upon what they truly think about the story.

News Values & Sources

     After watching the opening news sequence at the top of the post we were asked to analyse the news values in each story mentioned and then try to identify the sources of the news. The first news story is the £4 million ransom for a British couple who were being held captive by Somali pirates, with this story I feel the two most driving values of it are Negativity and unexpectedness, although this is not highly unusually it is still unexpected for a British couple to be held hostage by Somali pirates, and because this News event play's a tape to their loved ones, we can see the reaction to the tape so it introduces a visual image showing strong images of the family worrying about their loved ones after hearing this tape. Another point is this story is simple and straight to the point making it easy for the viewers to follow, however these are the values of the story, but what about it's sources? The source is likely to be a police for or some other emergency services from around that area that have alerted the police and media back in the UK so their families can know about them, this seems to be the most likely source of information however there are many more.

     The second story use some different elements to the first as it is about a government drugs adviser being sacked for saying that ecstasy is less harmful than alcohol. Now this story straight away use unexpectedness but on a larger scale than the previous one, not because he was sacked but because this study is shockingly unbelievable and we immediately question weather to believe it or not, people can hardly believe this to be true but surely there must have been lots of money go into this research to come to such a dramatic conclusion right? Well you would think so but weather there was or not is another question however it does use to different values to the previous one, very loosely it will use Elite persons as he is a member of parliament but nobody knows his name he is just the government drugs adviser but because of that it uses personalisation where people can follow a story because of individual characters. The sources for this story are simply because it's the parliament so it was easy to get a hold of the information and easy to get hold of the facts when they are running the country, nothing tends to escape the media when the Parliament or any other form of government are concerned it will usually always make news, most of the time for bad reasons and this is no exception.

The third story tells the audience of how the postal unions are announcing more strikes and the letters are backing up, now this story in particular has meaningfulness to the audience as post is a typically British thing and a lot of people use it so the fact that they are more strikes happening means that people can't get letters to and from each other and it therefore has an impact on the target audience. Another different thing about this news story is that it contains continuity. The fact that they say there has been more strikes announced suggests that they have been following this story for a while just as strikes have been announced beforehand and they were looking out in case any more were announced and there was. Because it has been on the news beforehand it will be easier to get on again because people will want to know what is happening with the story especially if it means something to the target audience. Finally this news story does contain negativity as it is bad news for the whole of the country, the post is used a lot and this could effect many different people in very different ways so this has a negative impact on everyone. The news source for this story is likely to be Trade Unions as it's the unions which are going on strike and with such an outburst and no letters being delivered it's a little hard to ignore it. If the post service goes on strike it impacts the whole country and people will want to know whats going on, so the fact that they have got the sources and the people want to know about it, there's is almost no chance that a story like this wouldn't be on the news.

The last story contains some slightly different news values to the others. It's about a little girl who needs half a million pounds for cancer treatment and the money is pouring in. Just for the fact that the money is pouring in makes it a little more light hearted compared to the rest as she is actually receiving the money for the treatment rather than not getting enough for the treatment so this story uses composition as it balances the variety of news stories on the show well whilst using unambiguity as the story is simple, straight forward and easy to follow and people can easily understand what is going on in the story. Although the story is on the lighter side compared to some of the previous ones it still contains some strong images of seeing this little girl in that condition at such a young age and for some people that might not like the sight of these images and due to this it might make people feel sorry for the girl and make it even more likely that she will gt the money needed for the treatment as it is being shown on the national news. As for the sources of this story it is likely to be non-commercial organisations that had the source of it due to it being a charity story, trying to raise money for a young girls cancer treatment. This is the most likely source but this story is from America so that might be how the story started out in America but when it got big enough and it was shown over in the UK we would have our sources from other news media, however the original news source for this story is likely to be non-commercial organisations. With that in mind it shows how the News can appear to be impartial in the smallest of things they do from the opening sequence, the way the News readers present themselves or even in the stories themselves it shows how the news can appear to be impartial and present the news in an unbiased way.