CRITICAL REFLECTION

 

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

Dziga Vertov used documentary storytelling to reshape the dynamics of genuine storytelling. Vertov's use of creativity in his pictures to tell his message, particularly the overlaying of shots that may be deemed ground-breaking at the time, inspired me. My research into Vertov's photos in 'Man with a movie camera' (1929) led me to be more experimental with my visual storytelling, therefore I was inspired to incorporate footage that referenced his overlaying pictures but in slightly re branded ways. I referenced this in an image where my interviewee is seated with a projection of a French flag over her face, and again in a shot where my other interviewee is staring down into a broken mirror, which echoes a mirror shot that Vertov used himself. In addition to the traditional documenters, I researched BBCIII documentaries like, ‘Being British-Bangladeshi’ (2021), and ‘The Instagram effect’ (2022), as both of these documentaries shared my target audience, and the former discussed similar topics to my own documentary. I attained my knowledge of traditional documentary conventions such as interviews and archived footage, from my research of contemporary documentaries, such as ‘Blackfish’ (2013), which illustrated the conventional ways of documentary interviewing, however I equally utilised my knowledge of those typical conventions to then challenge them. I referenced Sergei Eisenstein’s ‘Battleship Potemkin’ (1925), which demonstrated a use of montage that does not typically occur within a chronological format of a documentary. I achieved this towards the end of my documentary whereby I included a montage of one of my interviewees overlayed with her interview audio, of which the shots in my montage were from different filming dates and did not display any chronological relevance. I used the theory of montage in my own documentary, which then defied the typical chronological conventions of most documentaries.

How did your products represent social groups and issues?

My documentary Is based around the lesser told stories of international students studying in England, essentially meaning that representations were the key convention of my documentary. I used my documentary as a way of challenging the under discussed stereotypes of international students, in which they are classified as ‘unimportant’ and ‘abnormal’ in regard to British culture. International students are represented as outsiders who mask their emotions in order to fit in and benefit from a superior education in Britain. I have three main representations in my documentary: Age (Young), nationality and gender (female). My products represent these social groups combined, in an attempt to place an emphasis on the lack of importance on the person, and the nation-wide focus on the limiting identities of these young international students. My Social media minor task more represents the young social group, as the contemporary illustrations of my interviewees on Instagram resonates with a youthful representation, as well as my mast-head being sans-serif along with my typography. My documentary primarily discusses nationality, and the challenges that arise from being born from a different nationality than your peers. I represent nationality through the discourse of my interviewees, but equally through my visual representations. Alongside representations, my products discuss issues that accommodate young international students in the UK. These issues brand from cultural issues and language barriers to issues of racism and prejudice, which are very prominent in the lives of international students, however severely under-discussed. I represent these issues through my interviews which are accompanied by multiple mid shots and close ups that resonate with   the negativity surrounding the representation of international students.

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

My overall branding is driven by the key ideology of nationality and the currency of important conversations being made by people who are in the ‘shadows’ of mainstream society. For my minor task I made choices that referenced identity, for example in covering up the faces of my interviewees and placing an emphasis on the importance of introducing each interviewee and their identity. My photos of people were mostly comprised of close ups, which purposely positions the audience to consider the person they are looking at and resonate with the significance of identity. I carried that message further in my magazine minor task, whereby I took careful measures to ensure that my magazine image reflected the same significance on identity. My magazine image features myself, lying on a British flag with an American football helmet in my hands. This was to reference my own nationality, and to convey the branding throughout my minor tasks. I wanted my audience to engage with my media products, through Blumner and Katz’s Uses and Gratification theory, as the audience will engage with the documentary as they resonate with the message. One successful documentary marketing package was the marketing campaign for the ‘Social Dilemma’ (2020), which engaged both traditional media formats (magazines) and digital media formats such as social media. ‘The Social Dilemma’ includes Instagram in its marketing campaigns to engage with its younger target audience, which can be considered successful as the official Instagram page has over 90 thousand followers. Equally, the documentary used magazines to increase their audience interaction and brand identity, as through utilising both traditional and digital formats of marketing, the documentary became very successful.  

How do your products engage with the audience?

My audience for this documentary was ABC1’s and 2’s with a strong female skew, typically aged 16-34, who have common interests in politics and social media. My primary audience are young international students who engage with my media product for its representations and discussion of narrative that is relevant to their lives, through the uses and gratification theory as proposed by Blumler and Katz. My secondary audience would be along the older spectrum of my target audience, and engage with my documentary as a form of educating themselves and learning about different viewpoints. This secondary audience could be classed as ‘more mature’, as it would be comprised of people who are interested in learning about new things that are unfamiliar to them, and as Stuart Hall would suggest, the secondary audience would aspire to decode the messages from my documentary as a form of educating themselves for a preferred reading. In regard to the young demographic of my target audience, the visual aspects of my documentary would interest them the most, as some shots are artistic and colourful. I think that the visually colourful shots would attract the young audience, as they have short attention spans and require the media they consume to be instantly gratifying, which links to the theories of Neil Postman, who argues that audiences are now looking for media products that prioritise entertainment over education, which is what the younger audience could find in my documentary.