Product research

I recently watched two documentaries to give me an idea of the conventions that are used. I created a table to take notes on, the headings were: Soundtrack/music/voiceover, Narrative style/tone,choice of shots, titles/credits, editing, Use of set-ups (situation), Location/ backdrops of interviews.

The Tower
BBC 1 documentary about the displacement of people and their homes to make way for a new regeneration project that involves new, modern, swanky apartments.
The documentary followed the lives of 3 very different people and how this regeneration project would effect their lives. I liked the intimate approach of following these people, as they are all in the samw position, but changes this project will have on their lives is very different.

• The orchestral, low-high pitch music; builds up getting louder during the transition to the next shot- I think this would be useful in my documentary, because the technique infroms the audience the change from one topic to the next. In my documentary i would like to use typical greek music.

Diagetic sound of people talking or being interviewed were edited as voiceovers used during location shots and long duration shots.

• The narrative style had a formal introduction to the documentary, with a very serious tone. very informative
• The beginning of the documentary consisted of a serious of shot duration shots of "The Tower" and high abgle shots of the location of the tower.
• The titles and credits were very brief. only one scene was used for the titles and was very short,2-3secs. Quite dull colours, black background with white font.
• 1-4 second shots, whilst documentary is beginning(quite short). The shots match what the voiceover is saying. The shots go on longer than when the person finished talking, to see their emotions.
• People were being interviewed whilst carrying on with what they were normally doing, so they were talking to the interviewee at the same time- I like this idea as it adds to the realness of the documentary.

Domestic Violence-(In America)

• This was more of a real life documentary, following the cops around America's homes chasing up domestic violence.
• The doc begins with long duration shots of the sub-urban neighbourhood, which is used to set the scene- this could be useful in my documentary, maybe to show shots of greek stereotypes e.g dancing etc

Each of these documentaries were very different. I liked the way The Tower follows the lives of different people, however this would be difficult to re-create due to time and valibility of equipment. The Tower's documentary had a very long informative introduction, this would be something i would consider doing as it is easier to gather the information i would need.

I have more documentaries that i am waiting to get hold of and watch, these documentaries will hopefully give be a clearer idea of other conventions i could re-create.