Deconstruction of a Documentary

I am deconstructing the beginning 5 minutes of the Channel 4 documentary 'Don't Stop the Music', as this is also the length specified for my own product.

Aired 9/9/2014: James begins with St Teresa's primary school in Basildon, Essex, testing whether his 'instrument amnesty' can work with the pupils of Year 5, and persuading teachers and parents of its benefits before he attempts to launch it across the rest of the UK.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dont-stop-the-music/4od

From this research I hope to understand the structure and style of modern documentaries on Channel 4 (my exhibitor in mind) to help me produce my own documentary effectively. I've also chosen this documentary to deconstruct in particular as I am expecting to see cinematographic shots of the instruments which may inspire my own shot list.

I have presented my deconstruction using SlideShare so that I can focus each shot from the documentary on an individual slide, and so it also becomes interactive.

'Don't Stop The Music' Documentary Deconstruction from Courtney O'Donnell

From this research, I have been inspired to experiment with a range of conventional cinematographic camera angles and movements and also editing styles for documentaries. I have gained a deeper understanding of the structure of a documentary as this was something I was initially unfamiliar with; for example the non-linear introductions used to create an enigma for the rest of the documentary and explain the investigation, and the positions and use of the title and hashtag within the introduction. I've also become interested in how this documentary matched their voiceover script to the actions in the shots, as this is a fluid style I hope to achieve for my own product. I may refer back to this post during my production planning.

Statistics for the Roles and Presentation of Women in the UK Media Industry

These are some screenshots of statistical data which comparatively discusses gender roles and representations within the media. The data is reliable as these are well known and highly credited UK feminist/media related websites, and due to the fact that the data is also cited with sources.

The information which I found most appropriate to discuss in my documentary is:

• '46% of global news content reinforces gender stereotypes, almost eight times higher than stories that challenge those stereotypes (6%)' - the journalistic/news TV area of the media industry therefore imparts these oppressive stereotypes onto its viewers, who as a result, may be more likely to also perceive genders in this damaging way.
• 'Just 23% of reporters on national daily newspapers in the UK are women, with only 1 female editor of a national daily.' and 'A study by Women in Journalism (WiJ) has found that 78% of all front-page articles during a four week period in 2012 were written by men compared to 22% by women.' - there is a clear gender bias in the journalistic/news TV media industry, and fewer opportunities for female writers. This may make my newspaper advertisement ancillary product relevant, as people who read those newspapers and see mostly male writers' names may become interested in my documentary which addresses this.
• 'Research on the UK media found that men typically outnumber women as 'experts' by 4:1 on major TV and radio programmes across channels.' - My next steps from this section of my research will be to look at a male dominated show such as 'Top Gear' which has been known for misogyny and controversy.
• 'Annual report from Dr Martha Lauzen and the Centre of the Study of Women in Television and Film found that in 2012 women comprised 18% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working in the top 250 domestic grossing films.' - key statistic for representing the gender bias and lack of opportunities for women within the UK film industry.
• 'In the indie sector women now make up 48% of the workforce, up from 30% in 2009.' - positive information about the development of gender equality in the UK indie film industry.

This research will help me when writing a powerful and thought invoking script, and will also support my discussions with accurate and reliable information.

Update from my Musician

My musician, Maya Law, has just emailed me her acoustic cover of 'Timber' by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha which I requested from her 2 weeks ago. I've uploaded the music to SoundCloud (with her permission) so that I can embed it to my blog.

I'm very happy with the quality and style of this piece of music, as it sounds professional, the sound quality is high, the music can be looped in the middle to make the song longer, the original song it's covering is recognisable, and the music does not change dramatically throughout the song so that it doesn't overpower my voice-over/diegetic sound. I will experiment with editing the speed and pitch of this song and ducking it during the editing process of my production so that it corresponds appropriately with my documentary video.



The next steps for my music are requesting another acoustic cover. This time I am requesting a feminist song, Hard Out Here by Lily Allen, to contrast with the problematic song 'Timber' which I have deconstructed in a previous post. The 'Hard Out Here' cover will once again be acoustic without lyrics, therefore its strong language will not be an issue for my audience. I've also asked Maya if this song could be more upbeat than 'Timber' to create an interesting contrast of sound and to have a range of song moods for the different points in my documentary e.g. upbeat for positive parts, lower for the negative criticisms.

Analysis of a Report on the Representation of Women in the Media Industry

I have used Prezi to present my analysis of a report by Equity which uses mostly primary data to discuss and challenge the representation of women in the TV, film, radio, music and advertising industries in the UK. I analysed the report by using the Mac pdf viewing tools to highlight relevant information and annotate it using text boxes and arrows.
Original report pdf download here: http://www.equity.org.uk/documents/response-to-labour-older-womens-commission/

Non-Diegetic Music

I have decided to consider the non-diegetic music which will overlay my documentary early on in my production plans in order to secure a musician and be organised for this key element of my production. As I am presenting and discussing contemporary media, specifically including the modern music industry, I have decided that my non-diegetic music will reflect this so that my sound and content flow well together.

Therefore my music will be acoustic compositions of popular modern songs; focusing on some of the songs I will be criticising in my documentary to create a link to what I am discussing, such as Timber by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha. I will also include popular songs relevant to feminism such as Hard out here by Lily Allen for when I'm not criticising the media. I have chosen an acoustic cover style without lyrics so that the music is simple enough to not distract from my documentary and diegetic sound, or overpower my non-diegetic narrations. It also allows me to use a variety of different songs which flow together, rather than including a range of different music styles which may sound messy and unprofessional when used together or consecutively.

As I do not have the ability to play the guitar to compose my music, I have asked my talented musician best friend Maya Law to play these covers. She is confident with composing acoustic covers in a range of popular genres for her YouTube channel, therefore I feel that she would be most appropriate to compose for my documentary. She is also capable of linking popular music into acoustic 'mash up' songs so that they flow well together whilst sounding recognisable to the songs they are covering; which perfectly meets the requirements for my documentary style of music.

Here are some examples of her acoustic compositions from her YouTube channel where she has covered popular songs:

Conversation with my Musician from Courtney O'Donnell

As I continue my research into the music industry, I will make an follow up post containing the list of songs I would like her to compose a cover of which I will send to her, and also any relevant conversations we have about my music for my documentary.

Deconstruction of Timber

Researching the music industry's relationship with feminism
The representation of women within the music industry can be exploitative, degrading and even threatening; evidenced by the condoning of rape culture by current artist, Robin Thicke.

I have decided to focus my research on modern media so that what I am presenting has more relevance to my audience. This could allow my documentary to create a greater impact as my audience may reevaluate the media which they are consuming. My target audience will also be familiar with current media due to their predominant media consumption habits as a young, digitally literate demographic.

Deconstruction of Timber by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha


Deconstruction of lyrics:
"I'll have them like Miley Cyrus clothes off twerking in their bras and thongs. Face down booty up, that's the way we like to what."

From these lyrics the males are degrading women by describing them as sexual objects. 'Dig-gidy dogs' metaphorically describing the males is degrading to men as it suggests they are driven by animalistic, hedonistic behaviour such as sex rather than complex human behaviour. The artist Miley Cyrus is also slut shamed for her 'twerking' and outfit choices.

"She says she won't but I bet she will."
The scenario being presented here is that the woman has rejected Pitbull's advances, but he is certain that he will be able to convince her otherwise - suggesting harassment by Pitbull. This demonstrates the damaging feminist social theory that 'no' means 'yes' and a man can change a woman's mind by harassing her despite her showing that she isn't interested - giving the man patriarchal control over the woman's choices.

"Timber"
The song title itself which is repeated throughout the song is a metaphorical male sexual innuendo - creating male dominance.

Deconstruction of the video:

This wide shot still from the music video demonstrates the male gaze in third person, as the audience can see that women are objects for the males' viewing pleasure.

The male gaze is also presented by the producers use of close-ups and tracking shots with the focal points being the curves, bottoms and boobs of the women in the music video.

Tracking and lingering over the women's curves presents them as an erotic object for the men in the video as well as the audience - which passively gives them the role of the oppressive male gaze. As the women are the only gender to be objectified in this way, a patriarchal role is assumed in the video, as the male perspective is the dominant one whilst the females are submissive to his gaze. Second wave feminist Laura Mulvey who created the concept of the male gaze in her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', 1975, stated that women were objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of the camera, and Hollywood films played to the models of voyeurism (sexual interest in spying on people engaged in intimate behaviours) and scopophilia (sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects). It may be useful to research further into the statistics and ratios between male and female main production roles within the mainstream media and whether this is changing, in a separate post.

When an audience views women in the media with an objectifying male gaze, this can transfer into how they view women in reality - leading to more female objectification, evident by everyday sexism such as cat calling, staring and groping/other forms of sexual assualt.

Looking at the mise en scene costume within the video, the women are wearing significantly less than the fully covered men. The women's costumes are sexualised due to their revealing design which often resembles lingerie, presenting them fundamentally as 'eyecandy' for the males in the video and the audience, however the suited, shirted and trousered men are not objectified in this way due to their styling.

The differences between the male costume and female sexualisation can be seen clearly by these two similar wide shots above and below.

Male costume: hats, long sleeved shirts, jeans, boots. Female costume: hat, cropped vest, unbuttoned knicker shorts, visible thong, heels.

Mid shot of fully suited male costume at the beach.

Wide shot in right third of fully clothed male costume with a long sleeved shirt and trousers apart from shoes.

Wide tracking shot of full clothed male costume with a long sleeved shirt and trousers whist diving.

Mid shot of lingerie style costume with cut outs on the pants and translucent lace draped at the back.

Finally, the shots of the women dancing on the tables for the male crowd's entertainment suggest arguably degrading stripping/table dancing imagery, met by a man grabbing one of the women without her permission, which further degrades the women in the video and demonstrates a male dominance.

Holiday Research Planning

I will begin my research for my product during the summer holidays to stay on track with my progress. I have used the mind map software by Exam Time to present my plan for all of the areas of research I hope to cover this summer.

by courtneyodonnell

Presenting and Pitching my Chosen Brief: A Documentary

Here is a presentation I have created using Emaze to pitch my idea for my final production to the class. I have also created speaker notes with a more in-depth description of each slide, which you can find below the presentation.



The likely target audience:
I am planning on focusing my documentary on a feminist issue or an issue relating to sexism in the media, therefore my most appropriate audience would be slightly young adults to adults due to the complexity and maturity of my topic. My topic is relevant to this audience, especially sexism in the media as young people who are digitally literate and predominant media consumers may be familiar with this issue. My target audience is also appropriate for my ancillary products, as the older demographic will be most likely to see the advertisement for the documentary when they read the newspaper, and the slightly younger adult demographic will most likely see the double page spread about the documentary if they read listings magazines. From my initial research and knowledge of the exhibitors of documentaries, I know that BBC and Channel 4 documentaries are targeted at a similar audience age range, which would make my documentary appropriate for these television documentary exhibition audiences.

How the products will relate and support each other:
-The documentary and newspaper will relate and support each other as they are both informative, mature and serious (varying with some informal newspapers, but this is generally true for newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent, which discuss similar political content such as feminism.). Therefore advertising my political documentary in a newspaper is appropriate in relation to the other content in the newspaper, as it will be seen by my target audience.
-Similarly to the newspaper advertisement, the double-page spread in a listings magazine is advertising my product mainly by writing, however the listings magazine is a much more in-depth description of it, with more exploratory content such as interviews, images and quotes. The listings magazine is suitable for my adult target audience who are most likely to read them, and also relates to my televised method of exhibition, as listings magazines fundamentally inform their readers about what will be shown on television.

Potential routes for exhibition and distribution:
My brief specifies that my documentary will be exhibited on television, however I could consider extending this to online streaming and on-demand television services such as 4OD and BBCiPlayer to target more closely at my younger demographic of my target audience who are more digitally literate, to convenience my audience who may have missed when the documentary was scheduled on television, and to encourage word-of-mouth distribution and virility for new audiences who heard about the documentary after it was aired. If I decided to include this method of online distribution, I may also want to consider online distribution methods such as reviews and debates using social media platforms like Twitter.

Skill-sets necessary for production including your own strengths and need for training:
Some of the skills which may be required for production that I am confident in include;

• Writing and communication skills, as the documentary and ancillary products are fundamentally written content. I am confident with this as I am currently taking English literature at Alevel.
• Directing skills as this is an independent task which I need to organise and produce myself.
• Organisation, time-keeping and planning skills, which need to be thorough.
• Some knowledge of the topic I am focusing on for my documentary, a knowledge of the style and structure of documentaries, and the ability to research relevant information for these.
• Camera and editing skills, which I am confident with and have developed from the AS task.
• Debating skills which I may need to use for the content of my documentary, and have developed from taking philosophy and ethics at Alevel.
• Analytic skills allowing me to locate and market to my appropriate target audience.

Some skills which I may need to train and develop for production include:

• My persuasive and advertising skills to create a successful newspaper advertisement, which I will need to research.
• A knowledge of the structure and style of television listing magazines, as I have not investigated these much before starting the project.

Time management:

To manage my time I will need to make allowances for each stage of production and create deadlines for when I need to complete these in order to meet my final deadline for the project. I will use the checklist within the A2 media booklet to regularly monitor my progress and see what I need to complete. Some possible problems which may effect my production time could include pressures from my other Alevel subjects, future personal pressures, and issues with accessing the necessary technology for production; therefore I plan to complete my work in time for all of my deadlines so that I can make time allowances for these possible problems.

Choosing a Brief

My task is to choose a brief for my final A2 project which I will present and pitch to my class. I will be pitching my plans for my project and how I aim to create and research for it to ensure that my idea sounds successful and appropriate for my deadlines, facilities and capabilities.

First I began considering and evaluating the possible briefs I could choose for my project by ranking them with a colour coding system on my worksheet. Then I mentally brainstormed some of the possible outcomes for the briefs I was interested in, and finalised my decision between;

Brief 3: An advertisement package for a new product or service, to include two TV advertisements, together with two of the following three options:
-a radio advertisement
-a TV programme sponsorship sequence
-a web pop-up

Brief 7: An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:
-a radio trailer for the documentary
-a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary
-a newspaper advertisement for the documentary

After focussing my consideration to the 3 extra options, and my interests in political matters such as feminism and equal rights and also English literature and writing in general, I decided that the documentary was the most suitable brief for me.

Hannibal Presentation

I have created a Prezi presentation to present to the class using my research on this blog post, where I researched the links between different media products, using the case study of the NBC television show, 'Hannibal'. This will help to prepare me for the main task for A2, which also involves linking between different media products to promote one main product.