Music Video
Skills Audit
Demo Work
Demo Work
Demo Work
Contents
Demo Work
Contents
> Theoretical exploration of the purpose
and application of research
> Secondary research into
music video genres, codes, conventions,
techniques, and theories
> Primary research with the
client to inform ideas development
> Focus group presentation of ideas for
feedback and review via questionnaire
survey
Moving Demo
See the Journal entries for this week ->
This page delves into my very first initial ideas. Detailing how I went from several ideas, to finalising it down to one and eventually building up that chosen idea into something which I could work with and continue on researching into. To do this I incorporated lots of methods such as Mind Maps, Mood boards and comparing my idea to practitioners to help myself gain a better understanding of my idea as well as fleshing it out into a more properly defined piece and something I could have greater confidence in.
Mind Maps
Then using my list for what I needed to do today, I started on my Mind Maps. I had several ideas running through my head so I detailed these on a single mind map. This allowed me to get a rough idea of all of them and what I’d be able to achieve with them. They consisted of a drama, animation, music video and Mockumentary. Using this Mind map I detailed all the rough points about them and what I’d have to do to make them. I was still struggling to choose between them though.
Initial Mind Maps
To fix this problem, I created a separate document where I detailed the rough plan of each of them as well as pros and cons. This allowed me to get a really good and easy view of what all of them would contain and some of the challenges I’d be facing. I then narrowed these 4 ideas down to 2, being the mockumentary and the music video.
Initial Investigation
I chose these two ideas as I felt they provided me with the most opportunity to improve a range of skills as well as both being projects that I felt the most enthusiastic about. At this point I decided to do some further research into both of them to help me decide between the two. For this initial research I only used YouTube videos as at the time and place where I was this was the most accessible form of research for me. Using this further research, I created another mind map for the two ideas. All of this allowed me to get a much more thorough idea of both of them which then allowed me to come to my final decisions.
Further Investigation
I have chosen to do the Mockumentary. I felt this was the best choice as it allows me to use a mix of live action and animated skills as well as allowing me to further my skills in foley, soundscapes and dialogue. But additionally, I haven’t tried to create anything like a documentary or mockumentary before so it will also allow me to try a new form of media out. I think this mix of medias as well as brand new challenges will be able to best show the skills I currently have as well as allowing me space to develop new skills throughout the project.
Final Mind Map
References
No Film School (2018) “Mockumentaries, Everything You Need To Know”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl2AgnUP-CU&t=1s (Accessed: 14 March 2022)
BackwardsCompatible (2021) “What makes a mockumentary? Comedic structure explained (Parks and Rec, The Office and Modern Family)”. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZt0d0tswe4 (Accessed: 14 March 2022)
BENEE (2019) “BENEE - Glitter (Official Video)”. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3gmU0GOTXI (Accessed: 14 March 2022)
Grades (2015) “GRADES - King (Official Video)”. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_kQAn9vBI4 (Accessed: 14 March 2022)
These References were very useful for different reasons. The Mockumentary videos allowed me to gain a better understanding of how mockumentaries work and what sort of things I would have to do if I were to make my own. This was useful as it gave me a realistic goal for what I would have to achieve.
The music videos have me inspiration for possible things I'd be able to make. However, I was able to gain a more comprehensive understanding of Mockumentaries which may be why I have leaned more into doing the mockumentary
Mood Boards
I separated my Mood Boards into four different ones. These consisted of one for style, characters, locations and techniques. Based on what I had planned in my mind maps yesterday, I felt these were the most important features that needed development but also the sections that would benefit most from the creation of the Mood Board. Other sections I had planned yesterday such as how I plan to research, I felt wouldn’t benefit from a Mood Board as I would only be repeating the things I had already discussed yesterday.
So I then created the Mood Boards.
I started with finding the pictures for each of the Mood Boards. This allowed me to get a rough sense of the important things I wanted to discuss within these Mood Boards. I only chose 2 to 3 images for each talking point within the Mood Board as I felt that was enough to illustrate the point, but I also wanted enough space to be able to write around each of the sections and discuss my ideas in accordance with the images.
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I finished my 4 Mood Boards and was pretty happy with how they turned out. Most importantly, I feel by creating these Mood Boards, I’ve been able to flesh the idea out a lot more in my mind than what I already had from the mind maps. I now understand a bit more what I want to do but also what I need to do in order to accomplish a good final product. This is useful to know now as it gives me a realistic sense of what I’m about to undertake in this project and helps me prepare for that.
Media Theory Applications
Tuesday 15th March
I then moved onto my next part of ideas development, which was comparing my current idea with the theories and practitioners that I had learned about in project 4. I felt this was a really good ideas development task, as from project 4 I’ve realised how many films these theories apply to and how each film conveys them. Additionally, the fact that all these theories can be applied to all of these films shows the importance of the theories and also that following them will allow me to create a better base for my idea and make it a lot more solid. As well as allowing me to start the fleshing out of my idea.
I started by outlining the theories I felt were most important to my piece. This left me with 8 headings I could talk about: Codes and Conventions, Genre, Todorov’s narrative theory, Propp’s character types, Levi-Strauss’ opposite, editing, sound and representation. These headings covered many of the topics I discussed in project 4 and I feel they are the most important in helping me to improve my idea as they covered the bases of most features within a piece.
I completed the first four today being codes and conventions to Propp’s character types. They were all incredibly useful and I wrote a summary for each of them detailing how each of them has helped me so far. But Todorov’s Narrative Theory I felt was especially helpful as it’s really given me a skeleton to further build my narrative off in the coming weeks. This is useful as having a good foundation will help to prevent further problems down the road, for example having a rushed or underserving ending, which is something I definitely would like to avoid.
Wednesday 16th March
Unfortunately, I had a dentist appointment this morning, which meant I had to miss today’s lesson. However once I returned I started my work at home.
I started by continuing the application of project 4’s theories which I had started yesterday. This included Levi-Strauss, editing, sound and representation. Similarly to yesterday, I wrote summaries for all of these in which I detailed their usefulness, but particularly the representation theories aided me quite a lot. I had already considered the other three before coming to write about them. However, I had not really begun to consider how my piece related to representation. I had a brief idea but I had not put a great detail of thought into it. But after completing it, I really started to better understand how it applied to my piece and I was quite surprised by how useful that particular theory was. But, all the theory applications have been very useful, and as I said in many of their summaries, I will continue their development by applying them into my research stage.
Once I had completed my theories, I emailed them over to Lainey as she said she would be able to review them when I asked her yesterday. Currently, I have not received the feedback yet, but I’m hoping it’s all good as I feel I put quite a lot of effort into the work and I hope it is up to the right standard. Once I receive the feedback and depending on what it says, I’ll upload the theories to WIX.
Thursday 17th March
As I entered college today, Lainey talked to me about the work that I had sent her to review yesterday. She said that all my theory applications were good and I didn’t need to change anything about them. This was really good to hear and meant that when I returned home I was able to upload them onto my WIX website.
Codes, Conventions and Iconography
Head Interviews- In most documentaries and mockumentaries, uses of head interviews are common in both. They help to flesh out the characters within the piece and give the audience their opinions and views on things that are happening on screen. Re-creating this feature would be a good way to make the audience empathise with the characters and help progress the story.
Handheld Camera- Tracking shots as well as any handheld shots in general are a huge convention within Doc/Mockumentaries. The slight shakiness of the camera due to the camera man having to improvise on the go provides a realism to the shot that would be lots if it was obviously planned and framed beforehand. Emulating this style within my own piece would aid in the attempt of trying to make it seem like a real documentary.
B roll- B roll acts as useful filler content for a documentary. These shots can be used to visualise what is currently happening on screen or give the audience more interesting visuals to look at. The reason I feel this would be useful is it allows me to expand the story just via the visuals, and if I wanted to focus more on the comedic route then adding in funny things into B roll could be quite a useful tool for comedy.
Narrative- I’m aiming for my narrative to be structured in a similar way to how common documentaries are structured, as I’m aiming to make my Mockumentary seem like it’s a real documentary. To achieve this I’m also going to use Todorov’s narrative theory to help me structure my narrative as this will allow me to help plan the narrative earlier on which will aid me in the upcoming work as I will have a more solid idea of my piece.
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Steve Neale- Although Neale's theories apply to the conforming and subverting of genre, the theory also applies to codes and conventions as he states that "Genres are instances of repetition and difference". His theory basically says that for genres to be recognisable they must share these important codes and conventions. And this is partly what a lot of my uses of codes and conventions will do. Their aim to to emulate the style of traditional documentaries to almost fool the audience into believing its a real documentary. Obviously, my piece will become very obviously not a real documentary when the animated character is revealed however this will subvert the audience's expectations as the previous use of codes and conventions would have led them to associate the piece with a real documentary.
Initial Conclusions
In conclusion, the use of codes and conventions within my piece are something which is going to be a really important task. One of my aims is to make my piece seem like a realistic documentary so discovering more conventions and how to implement them is vital in achieving my goals. Using these conventions will also help create a more solid tone for the audience which will also help to subvert their expectations when the real story and genre of the piece is revealed. Subverting their expectations is important as it will help the piece to stand and make it more memorable. To aid me in this task I’m planning to do more investigation into these codes and conventions during my research stage. This will allow me to become a lot more confident in what I’m trying to achieve.
Genre
Genre- My genre will be a blend of comedy and drama. The visual genre of the piece will be more drama focused with the planned colour grading and shot types to give the piece a more serious tone. Colour grading will involve me tinting and adjusting the colour of the shots in order to emulate the professional look and style that a lot of documentaries have. However the actual story and tone of the piece will be more comedic and lighthearted. I believe these opposing genres will help to create a distinct feel to the piece and the serious tone will also aid the comedic story as it will create a more satirical feel to the piece as it will seem like the documentary is taking itself seriously even though the story is more absurd.
Conforming and Subverting- The way that my piece confirms and subverts genre leads on from what I was just saying about the overall genre of my piece. The visual style will be my way of conforming to the genre as I want the piece to appeal to people who would typically like this visual style of documentary.
However, I then want to flip these audience members on their heads by my use of the story genre, which will be my form of subverting the genre. From here, I am going to stray away from the typical story that a documentary would follow and use this difference in tone to subvert the audience’s expectations. These different genres will end up with the piece having the feel of a hybrid genre rather than one set tone.
As Steve Neale stated “Genres are instances of repetition and difference”. He also claimed that “Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of the genre”. So I’m hoping that by luring the audience in by initially conforming to the genre it will allow the differences to stand out more and make my final piece more unique and more memorable.
Christian Metz- The Classical/Parody stage-
The hybrid genre idea that my piece is adopting also makes it slightly harder to be able to properly place it within Christian Metz’s genre cycle of changes. However, I believe I’ve been able to place it as best as I can.
I believe the piece falls between the classical stage and the parody stage. Traditionally, it’s going to feature a lot of traditional codes and conventions, which would mean it conforms more to the classical stage where the codes become guidelines of the genre.
However, as stated before the story will break away from a traditional documentary, this would mean it would fit more into the parody stage where codes are being mocked more, and the audience can recognise the conventions as well as the mocking of them. However, my goal isn’t to necessarily mock the codes, but more to use their iconography in order to initially deceive the audience.
So, therefore, the genre of the piece doesn’t really fit into either of these particular stages, but more lies somewhere between the two. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is important that I recognise this as it means I must work harder in order to make sure the piece doesn’t fall victim to an overly complicated genre.
Initial Conclusions
In summary, when talking about the genre of the piece it can become quite complex. However, I think having this information down here is incredibly useful. I’ve been able to roughly have all my plans for my genre in one place, which will allow me to better achieve this, as I now know what I’m aiming for.
The genre is definitely something important to me, and making sure that what I’m imagining in my head is possible is what makes this initial ideas important.
I think it's also important to note that when I talk about the story being more comedic focused that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m not planning to incorporate more serious parts as well. Currently I want the overall feel to be lighthearted however, I’m also planning to incorporate some more serious scenes in order to help build character development throughout the piece.
Kingsley-Jones J (2015) “Genre Theory- Christian Metz's four stages of genre 'evolution” Available at: https://prezi.com/ijyiwcfrhvfo/genre-theory-christian-metzs-four-stages-of-genre-evoluti/ (Accessed 27th March 2022)
Tzvetan Todorov's 5 stages of Narrative
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A state of equilibrium- Our main character has been living his life and the struggles that come with being part animated.
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A disruption of that equilibrium- The “documentary” starts filming and the audience watches the things that our protagonist lives with.
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A recognition of the disruption- The protagonist starts to doubt himself and the “documentary” which causes disruption to the “documentary”
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An attempt to repair the disruption- The documentary implements more positive segments of their filming (including people at school liking the protagonist etc) and ends up showing the rough copy to the protagonist.
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A reinstatement of the equilibrium but with a change- The protagonist sees that they shouldn’t be ashamed of himself and is able to return to their normal life feeling more confident.
Initial Conclusions
Using Todorov’s theory is incredibly useful, especially at this stage in production. In most instances of Todorov’s theory, the plot doesn’t have to go into great detail when showing how it applies to the theory, so I tried to stop myself from developing too much of the main story when using Todorov as a base.
However, with what I’ve come up with, I feel I have created a skeleton for my narrative which I can build off of in the research and pre-production sections. Most importantly, having this structure will make sure my piece has a good pace for it. Without the base it would be likely that the ending could be rushed or feel undeserved.
Using this theory as a structure to build off, I am planning to work my plot around these 5 points and make sure that each section will have equal care and effort put into it, which hopefully will mean the final narrative will have a natural progression and satisfying resolution.
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Media Studies “Tzvetan Todorov” Available at:https://media-studies.com/todorov/#:~:text=Todorov's%20Example,-Todorov%20used%20a&text=She%20wants%20to%20have%20an,a%20buyer%20for%20the%20barrel.(Accessed 27th March 2022)
Vladimir Propp's Character Types
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The Hero- The Protagonist (currently unnamed)
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The villain- The Protagonist ( They’re coming to accept himself and so is currently their own worst enemy)
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The donor- The supportive characters within the Documentary
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The Dispatcher- The documentary and the Protagonist
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The Princess- Acceptance
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The helper- The Documentary
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The father- The Protagonist
Initial Conclusions
Basing my piece around Propp’s character types helped me realise quite a few things about the characters and story of my piece.
Originally Propp has 8 character types, however I felt that “The false hero, who deceives the audience” did not really apply within my piece. And many of the characters also acted as several of the different character types, as documentaries typically have a limited task and so these characters can fill multiple roles.
It also helped me to realise that the documentary that is being created is really a character of its own. Obviously, the piece itself is a mockumentary but is framed as a proper documentary so this facade that it’s created becomes its own character. This becomes especially important as the documentary is one of the reasons our protagonist comes to accept themself as well as being the reason the protagonist’s journey started. This is why the Documentary acts as both the helper and the dispatcher.
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Brown D (2016) “Vladimir Propp’s theory of characters” Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/DanielBrown225/vladimir-propps-theory-of-characters (Accessed 27th March 2022)
Claude Levi-Strauss’ opposites
Protagonist vs Protagonist- This use of opposites is slightly odd as it’s the same character versus themselves. However, I feel this opposite applies very strongly to my currently planned narrative, as it is focused on the protagonist coming to accept them self, and to do this they’ve been fighting with themselves. So, this opposite ends with both sides agreeing and joining together which helps to establish the main meaning of the piece.
Protagonist vs The World- This is similar to the last opposite but is more of a one sided opposition as it is the protagonist fighting against the world and not necessarily the world who’s resisting against the protagonist. The meaning that is created through this opposition is similarly one of acceptance but also showing how sometimes one of the sides doesn’t necessarily want to fight.
Documentary vs The World- This opposite acts as an antithesis to the last one and has one side (documentary) trying to push away from the typical views of the other side (the world). The meaning once again that this opposition pushes is acceptance, but the way the two sides handle it is quite different in comparison to the last two opposites. In this circumstance one side is fighting to get away from the other, but at the same time trying to change the other side's views.
Initial Conclusions
This idea development was very useful, similarly to how I used Propp’s theory to understand my idea more. Whereas Propp’s allowed me to understand my narrative better, this task has helped me in understanding the motives of my characters, What and why they’re doing what we see them doing within the narrative. This is really useful to start learning about now as it will allow me to further this character progression further throughout my production as well as providing me with a solid base of which to further develop my characters off of.
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MOLLYNEWMANA2MEDIA (2016) “Narrative Theories: Levi – Strauss and Binary Opposites” Available at: https://mollynewmana2media.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/narrative-theories-levi-strauss-and-binary-opposites/ (Accessed 27th March 2022)
Use of editing
Colour grading- I plan to use colour grading in my piece to further my recreation of the style of documentaries. From my initial research, I have discovered a lot of documentaries have a similar colour tone to them, which seems to focus on darker more muted colours such as greys, blues and blacks. Being inspired by this style of colour grading would be a good way for me to emulate the style and also further my skills in colour grading, which I began with in my Self Portrait project. However, I don't want my piece to become completely washed out in this professional style, so I will most likely try to create a harmonious balance between the professional style as well as keeping the colours in. Hopefully this blend of style will also reflect my blend of genres.
Cuts- Cuts are the way two different shots are spliced together, and there are many different ways that cuts can be used. For example to emulate the style, or narrative effect. One thing I would like to use in this project, is the technique of cutting to a different visual shot but keeping the sound the same. This would most likely be used for a dialogue audio recording, and the visuals would then supply references for what is being discussed in the dialogue. As I have talked about before, this would likely be where I would make use of the B roll that I plan to shoot.
Alternatively, techniques such as fast cutting or decreasing the amount of cuts I use for particular scenes, is a good way to effect the emotion of a scene. For more dramatic scenes, fast cuts is one way to keep up with the pace of the scene but for a more emotional scene or when I want to see a particular character’s reaction, having fewer cuts and focusing more on character’s personality and development would be a better technique to use. The fewer cuts in more dramatic scenes would result in longer more drawn out scenes which are better for holding tension and emotion between characters.
Uses of Editing- Continuing on from when I was talking about how cuts can affect the emotion of a scene, the editing as a whole also furthers this.
Shot types are something I think can definitely change the feeling of a scene. Within my research, I plan to do further investigation into common types of shots that are used within documentaries but also how different shot types can affect an audience. Then I can blend this knowledge together to create effective cinematography which conforms to its genre but also impacts the audience.
From my initial knowledge, there are a couple of ways to use editing to affect the emotion of the audience. As I discussed in my cuts section, the number of cuts can help to raise the tension of a scene. Or longer shots with less cuts can help to emphasise more emotion between characters.
Editing can also be used to help to emulate the style of Doc/Mockumentary that I am trying to create. I will continue doing more research into this within my secondary research. But the way I use all the techniques I discuss in this section, such as cuts, colour grading and voiceovers will all come in essential when trying to recreate this style.
Voiceovers- Voiceovers are something I touched on briefly in the cuts section. They would most likely come into play when providing exposition for the audience. This would be the documentary makers speaking directly to the audience and providing them with information that is relevant to the part of the narrative that is happening. For instance, I plan to use this near the beginning and end to help wrap up the documentary.
This convention is also used several times for the head interviews where we will start by seeing the person who is speaking, but it will then switch to a voiceover with different visuals laid on top. I have talked about this a couple of times, as this would be where my B roll would come in useful.
Story- Editing is highly important when it comes to conveying the story to the audience, especially within a documentary. The visuals can be used to either reveal or keep something from the audience. This could be used quite usefully for dramatic irony, where the audience knows something that the characters don’t. And potentially this could be a really good technique to use.
Editing the production to improve the story is also essential. Even though the piece is presented as a documentary it’s really more narrative focused and driven by the development of the characters. Balancing these aspects will be quite a challenge but something I’m definitely looking forward to attempting.
Initial Conclusions
In summary, editing is going to be highly useful in portraying all the intricacies within my piece, but is also going to be very challenging. However, I am ready to take on the challenge, and preparing now is the best way to do that.
In my upcoming research section, I will make sure to complete research based around all the editing techniques I have discussed and how to use them effectively. This will guarantee me the best shot in achieving my goals.
Use of sound
Dialogue- In a traditional documentary, the majority of the dialogue would not be planned beforehand as they would be real testimonials and would be focused around getting the truth from the interviewees. However, as my piece is a Mockumentary, it’s important my dialogue is planned beforehand, as really it’s entirely a narrative. But, the dialogue also has to seem natural as my desired effect is to emulate a documentary. This will be my greatest challenge when trying to achieve good dialogue.
I also have little practice with on set audio recording as I have only done it once in a demo task, as my audio recording for options project was done separately as I was doing an animation. However, this is something I can definitely improve on, and potentially as part of my research I can book out equipment and test it, so that I will know what I am doing later down the line. This would definitely be useful as any mistakes I made then would prevent me from making them again in proper production.
Foley- I have a lot more practice with foley than I do on set recording thanks to my options project. However, live action foley recording will be slightly different.
To adapt to this change, I am planning to talk to some of my fellow students who did live action for options project and gain information for how they undertook foley. From what I know now I plan to record the natural environment on the day of shooting, as this will also aid in blending audio later on in post production.
Overall, foley is gonna go hand in hand with the dialogue and creating a good link between the two will be vital. My further research into these topics will aid me in this particular project.
Soundscapes- Soundscapes link in with the foley and will mainly be from where my on set environment audio recordings are from.
However, one thing I plan to do research on and also potentially use the technique of using silence. This can impact the audience quite a lot, especially when used in the right scenes and context. One idea I’ve had is for particular emotional or important interviews, soundscapes will be very low or only silence will be used as this will highlight the importance of the dialogue and make the scene a lot more dramatic for the audience.
Sound effects- I plan to make full use of sound effects within this project, especially to provide more comedy to the piece.
As the piece is focused around an animated person, I’ve had the idea that for certain things that happen a cartoon sound effect could be used. This will obviously create contrast between the realism of the rest of the piece and also subvert the audience’s expectations which is quite a large focus of my piece.
Additionally, this is very different to the rest of the sound and audio I plan to use which will help me improve my skills across a variety of audio practices. The most important feature will be balancing the two sides of audio, the realism and cartoon, as too much of one or the other will lead to the other one feeling out of place or a secondary thought. My further research will definitely help in keeping these skills well balanced.
Audio editing- I have a decent amount of audio editing as I’ve discussed from my options project, which I will make sure to take into and improve within this project.
Mainly, I have used my experience in adobe premiere pro and adobe audition to fuel my audio editing skills. And most likely this is what I will continue to use for my FMP. However, I feel I have only scratched the surface with adobe audition and so within my research, I think experimenting and discovering new things I can achieve within the software will be invaluable for me.
This will then allow me to have an arsenal of techniques to use for the editing of my final piece.
Initial Conclusions
In conclusion, all the sound and audio will be invaluable when creating my final piece. At this current moment in time, I think the best thing for me to do will be to take the plans I have discussed here, and continue their development within my research stage. This will allow me to discover what works and what doesn’t as well as discovering any new techniques that may come in useful later down the line.
Representation
Characters- The protagonist is the character which I feel a lot of the audience will feel the most connection towards. Their story is entirely about self acceptance, even if it is to do with them being animated. And I think that acceptance will be something a lot of people will be able to relate with. Lots of people want to be able to accept themselves for who they are, for many different reasons. And this character will hopefully be someone a lot of the audience can see themselves within.
The rest of the characters will be important to the story, but mainly will be there as a way to develop the protagonist. This doesn’t necessarily limit their own characters but instead they are not meant to be the main focus of the piece. However, I hope to have a range of different characters within this collective and hopefully, people who have gone through something similar with someone they know struggling will be able to relate and empathise with these characters.
Story and Purpose- As I’ve discussed several times the story is of acceptance. And as I just mentioned with the characters, I think this is something a lot of people will be able to relate to.
One of the reasons I have made it focused around this person who’s animated is that the reason they can’t accept themself isn’t something you would encounter in real life. This makes the story accessible to a lot more people. As the audience will understand that the actual story isn’t something they can directly relate to. But the message of that story is extremely empathetic and hopefully something everyone can relate or learn something from.
Initial Conclusions
In summary, representation is really important, and I hope that the story I create will be something people can feel represented in.
I think the best way I can develop these initial representation ideas will be through my primary research. This research will allow me to get first hand information of people’s opinions on these topics and hopefully will allow me to develop these initial ideas into something people can relate to, but also something that pays respect to the more serious topics within the piece.
Ethics
Mockumentaries can sometimes be a touchy subject as some are used to bring serious things to light through comedy. And some people find this insensitive, or feel they have been duped by the fact it is not a real documentary. These are things I need to keep in mind when carrying out the creation of my own mockumentary. My main premise is not one that could potentially create controversy, but the themes of acceptance that are used throughout could potentially be something people could feel duped about if they thought it was a real documentary.
Sasha Baron Cohen
It’s hard to not mention Sasha Baron Cohen when talking about Mockumentaries. Famous for many Mockumentary movies, with Borat being one of his most well known. In many of Cohen’s pieces, he plays a character. However not all of the people you see on screen in Cohen’s pieces are characters. In fact many of them also don’t realise Cohen is playing a character.
But Cohen knows that controversy sells, and so many of his characters are built to be quite controversial in order to create a reaction from not only the audience but also the people who don’t know they are being filmed for the mockumentary.
Going back to Borat, this character is shown being fearful of Jews. To an audience member unaware that the film is not a real documentary, this would be seen as highly controversial. And Cohen does not always make it obvious that the pieces and main character are fiction, as he doesn’t break character. And as I’ve mentioned he uses real people, without their knowledge within the film. This then blurs the line between whether the film is a work of fiction or not as not all scenes were planned or scripted.
In today's age, several of Cohen’s earlier Mockumentaries are seen as quite controversial, for many of the reasons I have mentioned above and so straying away from some of these techniques that he is known for could be beneficial in trying to avoid controversy and trying to create a properly ethical piece.
Ofcom
Although Ofcom has no specific rules regarding Mockumentaries, they do have a section on fairness, especially when a person is being interviewed or used for a piece of media.
A huge part of this fairness is gaining the consent of the person within the piece. And if it's a child under 16 years old then getting their parents consent.
But to get a fair consent, then Ofcom states that usually the participant should be told a number of things:
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The Nature and Purpose of the program
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What kind of contribution they are expected to make
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Be informed of the areas of questioning
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Be informed of any potential risks
Ofcom mentions more that should be taken into account but these are the ones people should be most aware of.
Using these methods correctly should result in a proper “informed consent”.
Ofcom also states that if done for the right reasons then some of this information can be withheld, but only if it is justified in the public interest or under other provisions. This does create some leniency into what is and isn’t for the public interest though.
Initial Conclusions
So, now where does this all fit in, in regards to my own piece. Well, due to my analysis of this, I’m now a lot more educated on the ethics of Mockumentaries, especially in regard to people's reactions to them as well as people who are used in them. Certain factors will not come into too much play in my own piece, for example all my characters are going to be actors and so I do not need to worry too much about gaining consent from the public, as all my actors will have already consented and know about the production and what it involves.
However, it is useful to note the audience’s reaction to Mockumentaries, especially keeping Borat in mind. If some people go into it thinking it will be a documentary and later on find out it’s a mockumentary then this could cause conflict as they may feel they were lied to and they’re not actually bothered about watching it.
There are several ways I could handle this, one of which is making it very clear that this is a Mockumentary right out of the gate. However, I feel this will lead to certain parts of the piece becoming undermined, as immediately knowing it’s fake will lead to a loss in certain emotional scenes and character connection as the audience will have been straight up told that everything they’re watching is fake.
I also think that the majority of the audience will be able to figure out that it’s a Mockumentary quite early on as they will be introduced to the main character who will very obviously be animated.
However, to ensure that no conflict can be created due to people feeling lied to, when I upload the final piece to Youtube, I can mention in the description of the video that the piece is a Mockumentary. In this way, I have assured that the audience can find that the piece is a work of fiction without having to make it extremely obvious and ruin some of the illusion.
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Campbell M (2007) “The Mocking Mockumentary and the Ethics of Irony” Available at:
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=taboo (Accessed 27th March 2022)
Ofcom (2021) “Section seven: Fairness” Available at:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/section-seven-fairness (Accessed 27th March 2022)
Red Dizk 99 (2020) “Borat - Jewish Bed and Breakfast Scene” Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJIXygpYcuE (Accessed 27th March 2022)
Evaluation
I began my ideas development by creating Mind Maps. This was a good way for me to gather all my ideas and finalise them into one solid idea. Using these Mind Maps, I was able to whittle down from 4 ideas to my final Mockumentary idea. The Mind Map was super useful in being able to better understand my own ideas as they allowed me to better plan them and by writing them down, it provided a physical place to discuss all the ideas running through my head. These Mind Maps will be really useful going forward into the project as they will be able to act as a base for my ongoing project progression, and I’ll be able to use them as a base of which to build my narrative and style off of.
I then moved onto creating Mood Boards. These allowed me to get more of a practical sense of how my piece would look, as well as being able to venture out into more aspects of my piece such as potential locations and characters. Similarly to the Mind Maps the Mood Boards allowed me to further continue my idea development.
Both the Mind Maps and the Mood Boards allowed me to continue with my idea developments and expand the idea that I had built up using them. So, their base allowed me to take my idea and apply it to media theories. This included theories on; Codes and conventions; genre; Narrative; Characters; opposites; editing; sound and representation. Thanks to my project 4 essay I had experience with these theories and so I understood them quite thoroughly before applying them to my own idea. Many of these theories were particularly useful, one of the most prominent was Todorov’s 5 stages of narrative and Genre. I have explained the usefulness of each of these within their individual summaries, but as a whole, these theories will allow me to lead into the research section, where I will be able to continue further research into the ideas I have started to theorise about. These possibilities include Documentary and Mockumentary research, audio research and much much more.
And my research should hopefully run a lot smoother thanks to all my ideas development.
If I were to do my ideas development stage again, I do not think there is too much I would change as I was quite happy with how I progressed through it. The only thing I might have changed, would be to have done further research into my alternative ideas before finalising my idea. I did rough plans of all 4 and then further research into the final 2. However, if I had done further research into all of them, I may have arrived at a different conclusion than the one I have chosen now. However, I am very happy with the idea I have chosen and I do not regret my decision.
