Task 3- Ideas- Michael Cartledge and Harrison Marlow

Music Video Ideas

Song: Song of the Century/21^st Century Breakdown  – Green Day

Genre: Rock

The screen is black and we see the lights fade in to see a man in a suit walking on the podium and tap a microphone and starts to sing into the microphone as if he is giving a speech making the audience believe he is addressing many people allowing us to think he is someone of high power e.g. The President or Prime minister.

The screen dips into black (Playing the intro piano part from the song) the screen fades back in as we see the same man who gave the speech standing in the same place on stage without the podium instead there is an SM58 microphone holding a ‘Epiphone les Paul Junior’ we can also see a drummer and bassist on stage and a second guitarist walks on stage behind him. As soon as they are on stage the music kicks off with the first strikes of the song. The music video would show the main guy’s life as he meets the rest of the band, there would be transitions from a performance based video to a story as the camera would fade in and out of his life and the performance.

The main premises of the story would be the difficulties in growing up in a 21^st Century society that’s full of war and crime and the knowing that no matter how much you would like to change the world there’s no way it can be done, it is also blaming politicians for crime and war and saying that it could be a way for the government to profit off the lives of people they are ruining or even the lives they are letting go to waste by sending them off to war.

The video would go through all of the members of the band as they grew up showing how one thing one law set by the government can ruin all of their lives in the same way, it would show them meeting up at a relatively young age and how they in fact end up running for office so they can present their song to the people of the world.

The video could also focus on the performing aspect which wouldn’t all be on stage it would in fact be shot in different locations decollate and decrepit areas that look like they could be hit with financial struggle, wherever they all go they would all show clear examples of what is the 21^st Century Breakdown.

The song would end with them all onstage and as the camera dips to black with the piano outro the band would leave so at the end of the song a spotlight would focus on the lead man without the guitar wearing the suit back at the podium (which could be a twist he may not be important instead he could be in a court presenting his case to a judge if this is the case the last thing we would see in the music video would be the judges hammer hitting the table as the judge sends him away for however long.)

Song: Haley- Needtobreathe

Genre: Rock

A young boy and a girl (about 14/15) are shown happy at the start in the sun which then suddenly cuts to the boy breaking up with the girl in the rain (or so it seems), pathetic fallacy shows the mood. The boy is played by the lead singer, we see the girl breaking down and looking at pictures of him, flashbacks are shown with a sepia, old fashioned camera filter. Years are shown to pass with the girl getting older but not any happier and the boy going about his day to day life, he sees the girl in the middle of the time passing with a look of sadness on his face. We now see the boy and girl as young adults (about 19/20) and the girl is about to leave home to go to university, she sees the boy in a crowd and begins to walk towards him to clear things up before he leaves but the crowd conceal him and then he is gone.

We cut to the girl saying goodbye to her parents from the car which she drives away and then unpacking at university. As the girl is walking down a corridor she bumps into someone and they drop the books they were holding, as the girl crouches down to help them with their things there would be a close up of the books and then the camera would pan up to reveal that it is the boy she as been in love with for years.

Everything then goes back in reverse at high speed to the breaking up point but this time it is shown that the girl actually broke up with the boy and then short snippets of the boy going through everything that the girl did to reveal that they both regret ending it with each other up to the point where they are both crouched on the floor starring into each other's eyes, shocked. Fade to black with the song, implied happily ever after.

The whole video would be intercut with the band performing the song in the boys room and on a field.

Documentary Ideas

I.R.L

A Documentary about video game nerds and developers showing how video games are made and how people live who are considered stereotypical video game nerd and interviews with people in the street saying how they have no life and no friends although they live in a fantasy world with millions of other people all over the world all who literally have 1000's of lives, the documentary would also show how they live their everyday lives and how some people have made a career from playing video games becoming developers, professional players and even YouTube partners.

Short Film Ideas

Repetition

A phone rings we see someone answer it, we don't see his face, just his hand and cut to an over the shoulder shot of him talking to someone over the phone we hear him say "Alright it'll be done" and he hangs up, the camera pans round revealing the man from a medium shot we see his face. He then goes into another room where he opens a cupboard revealing a safe and through a few match on actions we see him take a hand gun out of the safe and a magazine, we then see him load and cock the gun. we see him leaving the house he's living in and we see him getting into a car and driving off. 

We see our man pull up somewhere and get out of his car, we see him looking at the target walking away, he shouts for the Hit to stop. Upon hearing this command the target bolts down a back alley where he is being pursued and lead to a dead end by our assassin, the assassin starts to walk rather than run knowing he has lead the Hit down to a dead end.   

We see him walking through some back allies and go to a crane shot as we see a man in the distance, he appears to just be staring at a wall almost knowing he is at a dead end, that he seems to be willing to give up and let his pursuer kill him. 

The assassin raises his gun and pulls down the hammer for effect and states to his target simply "It's Over" the target turns around revealing that it is in fact the assassin and upon closer inspection we can see they are even wearing the same clothes, stunned the assassin drops his guard down giving the target enough time to draw a weapon and fire a shot at the chest of the assassin. The assassin drops to the ground with blood clearly starting to flow from him, with a dazed and terrified face as he starts bleeding out and dying. The target walks over to the assassin and looks at him with a stern face and states "This has been the face of death for many, many people and now it's your turn to know the fear of seeing your face" the assassin lets out a single tear as he says "Who are you?" 

The Target simply replies with "Isn't it obvious I'm the same person as you, I'm the angel of death." we see the assassin lay there and let out a smile just before he passes away, We then see the target pull out the same phone as the assassin from his pocket call a number and says, "The service you required has been completed". Finally we'd go to a birds eye view shot of the target walking out of the alley and away from the body. 

Set Alight

My short film would not have any dialogue, it would show the story of a sad man who walks around with an unlit candle, at first it would not be clear as to why he is holding an unlit candle but he would see couples walking around holding lit candles, the flame representing that they are together. Men would hold the candle while women would hold a lit match. He would see people in restaurants having their candles lit.

He then begins a series of dates with women who attempt to light his candle but the candles just doesn't catch fire until he gives up, depressed. Until one day he is in a laundrette and a woman falls into him, after he catches her it zooms out and we realise that the woman has accidentally lit the man's candle, insinuating that they have found one another and will now be together.

Music will play to match the man's mood, slow music when he is sad, music in a major key when he is happy.

Inspiration for this came from:

The short film 'Struck' by TXL Films

The song 'All the Little Lights' by Passenger

Video Game Ideas

Malevolence 

Malevolence is a game about revenge. After his family are murdered by vicious Mafia Don, George Frost is framed for the murder and is put straight in jail where he is released after a long life changing 10 years (released for lack of evidence and good behaviour) although a peaceful average Joe kind of guy George Frost is forced to leave his simple and peaceful life behind as all he has thought about for 10 years was discovering his families lifeless bodies lying on  the ground, after all of this time there is only one thing Frost is looking for and that’s his Malevolence and his retribution for something that was taken from him.

Malevolence would combine elements of an action game (e.g. Max Payne) and a free roam RPG (Fallout) this is because Frost wouldn’t know where any of the mob family live so he has to find them, he has also never killed a man before this is a vital element of the game as you would play someone who struggles to take lives as he has never done it before, with each kill progressing as the game continues and develops a much more sinister story than expected.

Based off of the original dark revenge game ‘Max Payne’ and the movie ‘Law Abiding Citizen’ our main character lives in his own hell on Earth Possibly turning to alcohol and drugs, giving him abilities that he may not of been able to unlock before, such as Adrenalin the ability for Frost to slow time making his shots more accurate, although time would seem to be much slower its still in real time for anyone else.

The game would be a next generation release, for the PS4 making its graphics unsurpassed and beautiful creating real looking environments and character interaction, leaving the player able to make real life choices, how to complete a level, to sneak or go all guns blazing, what to wear, go in disguise etc.

Inspiration for this came from:

The game 'Max Payne' by Rockstar Games

The movie 'Law Abiding Citizen'

The comic book character 'The Punisher' by Marvel

Task 2.4- Short Film Research- Michael Cartledge and Harrison Marlow

 Todorov's theory of narrative states that there are five stages to all stories, these stages are;
1. A state of equilibrium- when everything is fine.
2. A distruption of order- an event that happens which distrupts things.
3. A recognition that the disorder has ocurred- characters react to the event.
4. An attempt to repair the damage- characters set out to find a solution to return to equilibrium.
5. A return or restoration of a new equilibrium- characters succeed and equilibrium is restored, the characters have grown after their story arch.

Films

Batman Dead End

Director: Sandy Collora

Heavy incidental music, the sound of an orchestra hit on an empty (black) screen with titles slowly appearing in the centre of the screen, a compilation of someone putting on the ‘Batman’ outfit that we know to be the Batman, still with incidental music and a voice over from what sounds like a police radio talking about “trouble in Gotham City” and “The Joker once again escaped from Arkham Asylum.” We never see the face of the actor playing Batman as he is getting ready by putting on the classic Batman gear all of the shots in the opening of the short film is medium close up shots so we never reveal his face leaving a layer of mystery over the opening.

Establishing shot of a building we can assume is ‘Wayne Enterprises’ to set the location of the short film (the shot was clearly archive footage possible taken from one of the Christopher Nolan Batman films) we see a few forward tracking shots following Batman and the Joker as they run through the alleys of Gotham City, there is a use of shots which transition into each other, a close up shot of Batman as he lands into a puddle so all of the water splashes around him leaving his cape laying around him on the floor, to an amazing crane shot showing him crouching on the floor and seeing his cape almost into the Batman symbol, with orchestral music playing as he slowly rises up bringing the cape up as he rises.

We see a lot of shot reverse shots between Batman and the Joker as they fight and speak to each other about the Joker’s face and calling the Batman “Daddy” because the Joker believes that the Batman created him because without Batman, Joker wouldn’t have anyone to fight so without each other their lives would be pointless.

Through a twist of events we see the Joker being snatched by a Xenomorph (Alien from the Alien’s Saga) we see an extreme close up of the Joker’s knuckle duster as it falls to the ground, we then see a Xenomorph  rise up from behind Batman from an over the shoulder shot from Batman’s front.  We then see an extreme close up of Batman fighting a Xenomorph as we see Batman struggling with the Xenomorph we see the three iconic dots of the Predator’s shoulder cannon, and we hear a blast noise as the camera swaps showing the Predator for the first time.

There is a fight between Batman and the Predator, this shows the conventions of a short film extremely clearly by having the equilibrium of Batman fighting the Joker and taking him back to Arkham something any Batman fan knows is the normal situation in Gotham, we then have the Twist where we see the Joker being killed by a Xenomorph something unknown to the Batman universe causing distress to the characters in the film, we continue with the un- equilibrium of the Predator being introduced into the mix and finally the equilibrium at the end when the Predator is defeated by a heavily beat up Batman, but then questioning the conventions there is another twist as more Predators appear from nowhere clearly turning off their cloaking device.  This is a good example of a short film as it mainly sticks to the conventions of a short film with all of the twists etc. It also doesn’t give us a back story on any of the characters but this could be because most people know the story surrounding Batman and the Joker but it keeps to the convention of short film by keeping the story short and full of action.

NA nananananana Batman!



Signs

Director: Patrick Hughes

Signs is a love story in which the two lead protagonists have no dialogue, the story is told through signs that they write to each other and the visual images.
The film starts with sad, slow incidental music, the ambient sound of an alarm can be heard as the main character, Jason, wakes us. The camera is looking down on him from directly above as he lies there, it emphasises how pathetic he feels. The film cuts between different shots of his morning routine, the music remains sad. He wears a suit, which is used to show how he blends in with everone else. On the way to work we see a point of view shot of Jason looking at a woman, this shows the reason he is not happy, he is alone.
When Jason reaches work we can hear ambient office sounds (phones ringing and general chatter). We then cut to Jason's lunch break where an over the shoulder shot shows Jason looking at another woman, as she approaches him we see him smile, but then he is disappointed she walks straight past, this emphasises the reason for Jason's sadness. We are also shown a meeting at work, where Jason looks very bored.
Jason then arrives home, we hear his mother leave an answering machine message where we find out his name and a little backstory of his life, as he gets into bed. The morning routine sequence is repeated to emphasise how mundane his life is. When Jason arrives at work he notices a woman in the building across from his, we are shown a point of view shot of him looking at her, and then a shot from the point of view of her room which shows how smitten he is. The woman then notices him looking and begins the sign writting, the camera flicks between their points of view as they converse through the medium of written word. We discover the woman's name is Stacey.
The incidental music becomes more happy, showing how Jason is happy something new is happening in his life, the morning routine is shown but with Jason in much higher spirits. We then see a montage of Jason and Stacey bonding, playing noughts and crosses with their signs, and drawing silly faces. We are also shown a meeting that Jason is in, Stacey is writing to him and he is having a good time in there, this narrative echo contrasts from the start and shows the effect the relationship has had on Jason, he is happy.
Jason is shown writing a sign, asking if Stacey wants to meet him, we are shown a close up of the sign, emphasising it's importance, as well the point of view from Stacey, showing how nervous he is. Stacey is then asked away for work while Jason is not looking and when he turns around she is gone.
We cut to Jason infront of a bathroom mirror, the camera is placed behind Jason so that we see his back and his reflection, the scene is a parody of the cliché in films when somebody talks to themselves in a mirror or practices a line. In this one he practices different ways to reveal the sign asking her to meet him. We are shown a medium close up of Jason's face, showing his nerves.
The next day the incidental music picks up even more, Jason barges past people in an attempt to get to work, a handheld camera is used in places to emphasise his rush. When he arrives at his desk and looks across, Stacey's belongings are gone and a new person is moving into her office, a reaction shot shows Jason's sadness.
The incidental music gets sad again as we see Jason return home and go to bed, followed by a repetition of the morning routine from the start, emphasising his sadness. As Jason sits at his desk as he did at the start, a sun glare hits his face, it is Stacey trying to get his attention, the light coming in may represent Stacey as the light in his life. It turns out that Stacey was only promoted, and Jason finally asks her to meet, she agrees and we see Jason rushing down to meet her, a handheld camera is again used. When they finally meet in the street Stacey hold a sign up saying "Hi" and we cut to the black, and the title card is shown.



The Black Hole

Director: Phil and Olly

The movie begins with a title card with the black screen is the background dispersing in a circular shape, which anchors with the word "hole" in the title. The camera tracks diagonally towards an office worker, we can tell he is an office worker as he is in a shirt and tie, standing in front of a copying machine. He looks tired, his rolled up sleaves and loose tie emphasise this. We see a close up of the worker pressing the on button of the copier and then a close up of him kicking it.
A medium close up of a piece of paper coming out with a perfectly round, pitch black circle in the middle is shown, followed by a reaction shot of the man, he is confused by the circle and how it printed when there was nothing in the copier. We hear ambient sounds of the copier working.
The man then takes a drink from a plastic cup and throws it down on the paper, the cup goes into the circle on the paper. The man then looks confused once more, a point of view shot from within the black hole shows the man looking into it.
The man then reaches into the black hole and we hear a strange sound as he puts his hand in and pulls the plastic cup back out. Discovering the power of the sheet of paper, the man quickly takes it over to the vending machine, the camera tracks forward as he approaches it. A close up is shown as the man reaches into the black hole (now put against the vending machine) and pulls out a chocolate bar.
A close up of the man's face shows him noticing a door that says keep out on it, he uses the black hole to open the door and then approaches a safe within the room and begins to take money from it using the black hole. The cutting speeds up as the man gets more and more excited by the money, he eventually climbs in to the safe completely and the black hole falls off the safe, trapping him in there. The safe is then shown head on as the camera jump cuts away, zooming out. The ambient sound of the copier can still be heard as the screen cuts to black.



Conventions of a Short Film

• Small amount of dialogue.

• Focused around one character.

• Twist or climax at the end.

• Only a few locations.

• Begins with "A *director's name* film"

• Ends with credits.

• Title cards used.

Magazine Adverts

Anna Karenina

Killer Joe

The Watch

Conventions of Magazine Adverts

• Name of movie is usually the largest font.

• A picture which hints at what the movie is about.

• When the film is out.

• Where you can see the movie.

• Copyright small print.

• The logo for the studio that made it.

• The cast.

Double Page Spreads

Ted

Brave

The Master

Conventions of Double Page Spreads

• The name of the movie.

• Information about the movie, eg. age certificate, plot, run time, cast, date of release.

• Picture from movie- along with a caption for the picture.

• An overall verdict.

• A website for the magazine.

• Page number.

• Issue number.

• Where you can watch it.

• Uses puns.

• Review text is around the pictures.

Task 2.3- Video Game Trailer Research- Michael Cartledge and Harrison Marlow

Trailers

Title: Watchdogs

Game Studio: Ubisoft

Genre: Action/Adventure

The trailer for Watchdogs has a narrative in the form of the voice over, the main character speaks over the top of game play footage to inform the audience of the main plot of the game and the unique selling point of the game. The game play shown consists of action and the uniques selling point of the game (the ability to manipulate the electronics in the environment by hacking them). In the trailer we see the main character, random civilians, random enemies and other small characters in the game, The main character is wearing a rather cool looking outfit, which would make the audience more fond of the idea of playing as him, it is an outfit that enables him to conceal his face as he is a vigilante. Both the hero and the villain carry guns and the hero appears to have a signature weapon, a police extendable baton, which he uses to great effect. The protagonist also carries his phone, which he uses to hack into the different electrical devices around. There are lines connecting the different electric devices to show you what will effect what which create a kind of webbing, showing everything is connected. The trailer is all animated.
Sound-wise, incidental music plays behind the voice over, we can also hear a police scanner which tells us that the protagonist is actually a wanted man. Folie sounds such as gun shots and car crashes are also heard.
The camera is mostly handheld, which gives it a more frantic atmosphere as the protagonist runs down a road, bumping into people, panning is also used to emphasise the movement of the action. Occasionally shots are shown through a phone camera which links to the games heavy theme on technology.

Title: Max Payne 3

Game Studio: Rockstar Games

Genre: Action/Adventure

The trailer for Max Payne 3 has narrative in the form of a voice over by the main character, he tells us the basic plot of the game, while he speaks we see action in the background which shows of the unique selling point of the game, which in this case is bullet time (going in slow motion while diving around shooting people). In the trailer we see the main character, a bunch of smaller characters and random enemies that the main character is firing at. The protagonist is wearing clothes that fit into his surroundings, at one point he is on a job at a party so he is wearing a suit, and in other parts he is more casual, in holiday wear as it is a hot country he is in. The entire trailer is animated.
We hear the soundtrack in the background of the voice over, which gives a sense of atmosphere and mood as well as folie sounds of gun shots.
The beginning of the trailer is purely narrative, the shots fade in and out of each other slowly to give a calm feel, until the action kicks in , and then the shots cut from one to another at a higher tempo. There is also a close up panning shot of a bullet in slow motion to show of the unique selling point of the game.





Title: Dead Island

Game Studio: Riptide

Genre: RPG

The narrative of the Dead Island trailer is in reverse and slow motion, it slowly reveals the story of a family who have taken a vacation only for it to turn sour when a zombie outbreak occurs. The trailer is fully cinematic, no gamplay is shown. The family in the trailer are not actually characters in the game, although you do feel an attachment to them due to the slow incidental music we can hear. No ambient sound or dialogue is in the main part of the trailer, only in some small snip-its that are not or slow motion or reverse that show how the daughter of the family ran from the zombies but ended up getting bitten. Although no game characters are shown, the premise still is.

The characters are wearing holiday clothes, shorts and t-shirts, props include makeshift weapons that the family use against the zombies in an attempt to defend themselves, both clothing and the weapons used suggest that they were not prepared for this outbreak.

The cutting between shots is slow, to match the tempo of the music and the mood of the story being told and the camera work is handheld in the short cut aways to the girl running to emphasize how frantic she is. Vertical tracking is also used at the start where the girl is shown falling up (in reverse), after an extreme close up of her eye which zooms out to reveal that she is dead.

Title: Star Wars Battlefront

Game Studio: EA

Genre: Sci-Fi FPS

We open with a view of just show and a blizzard from a first person/point of view perspective all we can see is snow and some burning debris, the only sound we can hear is the ambient sound of heavy wind and footsteps, and the extremely heavy breathing of the character we are seeing it all through, this makes us assume that the person we a watching this from is injured and in some sort of trouble.

Continuing with his slow paced walking we hear a very distinctive sound of a laser blast, as the blast hits the ground next to him the camera shakes in an almost documentary styled hand held camera, we hear more laser blasts still with no music, all ambient sound, shortly after hearing the laser blasts be hear an explosion, and we see from through the blizzard a snow speeder flies through the snow and past the camera as we hear an explosion behind us.

After we see the snow speeder fly past through the blizzard we see the immediately recognizable hoof of an AT-AT smash against the floor, the camera starts to fade to black and upon the screen titles appear reading ‘STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT’ a long awaited sight for the fans of the series.

This trailer is just a teaser, not giving any information or real view of the game all it gives is the assurance that the game is happening and is therefore starting the drip feed effect for the fans, the fans want more than the 34 second long teaser, but with ‘EA’ knowing this they will slowly give the fans more trailers and more looks at art and the gameplay until they release a real gameplay trailer approximately a year before the game comes out leaving the fans interested and wanting more until they know they have to have the game.

Conventions of Game Trailers

• Title card at the end.
• Narration.
• Unique selling point of the game apparent.
• Action is shown.
• Brief outline of storyline.
• Release date.
• Platforms
• Game studio.
• Website/social network address.

Cases

World of Warcraft

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Gears of War 2

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Fallout: New Vegas

Max Payne

Conventions of Game Cases

• Picture of main character on the front.
• Title of game on the front.
• Game studio logo on the front.
• Game's age rating on the front.
• Console/format the game is on.
• Console and name on the side.
• Quotes from internet reviewers on the back.
• Barcode.
• Health warnings.
• Copyright information.
• Game information (eg. how many players, whether it is online or not).
• Screenshots of game.
• Features of the game.
• Run down of the plot in a paragraph.

Magazine Adverts

Doom 3

Omerta: City of Gangsters

Painkiller: Hell & Damnation

Halo 4

Conventions of a Magazine Advert

• Name of game.
• Picture of main character.
• Some sort of representation of the action/gameplay.
• Websites (official or social network).
• Release date.
• Picture of game case.
• Platforms the game is on.
• Copyrights.
• QR code.
• Game's age rating.
• Quotes from reviewers.
• Game studio.

Task 2.2- Documentary Film Research - Michael Cartledge and Harrison Marlow

Documentary Analysis

Documentaries as a rule have certain rules/codes that they stick to in order to try and entice the audience in to what the presenter has to talk about, using some of the main conventions such as a Voice Over to give the documentary a feeling of excitement and drama or like they know the answer to the question they are posing to the audience. In documentaries in order for the information collected to be sound and accurate they set up interviews with experts on the documentaries subject matter, often using Incidental Music to give the documentary an exciting feeling over the top of it, the music often reflects the subject matter e.g. if it is about Nature it will be soft music with a slow flowing tempo, if it was a crime documentary it is likely they would chose some sort of high paced Hip Hop music. CGI is often used to make the documentary look more interesting toward the audience to try and hook them into the audience. Often-video montages of clips on the subject possibly using archive footage giving the audience a first hand video evidence of the event in question hooking the audience even more so because they know it’s true.

Films

Title: The Fabric of the Cosmos (2011)

The Fabric of the Cosmos is a documentary about physics and how the universe is put together. It begins with an establishing landscape shot, with a voice over, in the background incidental music can be heard faintly, as to not overpower the voice over, which is introducing the audience to the subject matter of the documentary.
There are a number of CGI images showing space and planets. There are images in reverse to illustrate points that the voice over is stating which shows that illustrations can be used to better help get a point across and help the audience understand.
We see a number of interviews with experts which are used to make the documentary seem more reliable as these people have studied the subject deeply and know their stuff, these experts are shown in a "Coming Up..." part which would allow the audience to see what they can expect to see and learn which, if somebody takes an interest in science, sound very interesting.
Titles begin and we can see that the theme of space and science continues as the words fly in in a professional looking font. After these titles we see a city that has been sped up with a voice over over the top, this time the voice over is done by the talking head that we were introduced to before the titles. The talking head is then superimposed above the image of the city and everything around him freezes in an attempt to explain a point he is making.

Title: Prisoner X (2013)

Prisoner X is about a mysterious prisoner that was being kept in Israel that the identity was kept hidden, it starts with an establishing aerial shot, it has a voice over explaining the story to the audience. We see archive footage and reconstructed events to help the audience better understand the event, these pieces of footage and reconstructions are filmed using a handheld camera. Ambient sounds and incidental music can be heard behind this, the incidental music is used to connect with the audience and make them feel for Prisoner X more, while also adding atmosphere.
Interviews with experts are shown, these people are people who were involved so they are a trustworthy source of information on the matter, they do a lot of paralinguistic features to keep themselves interesting while also using them to illustrate or exaggerate a point. We are introduced to a talking head who also seems knowledgable on a subject so that we trust that they know what they are talking about.

Title: A Very British Gangster (2007)

A Very British Gangster is a documentary about ex-gangster Dominic Noonan, who has gone straight and tells the story of his experiences, his opinions on different things and the temptation to go back to a life of crime to the reporter Donal MacIntyre.
The documentary starts with an establishing shot of the skyline of Manchester at night (night because the voice over from Dominic Noonan states that night is when "the gangsters own the city"), the camera then pans down to Noonan standing with two other men, the juxtaposition of these men shows that Noonan is in charge as he is in front of them, and in the middle. There is then a sound bridge of stereotypical gangster music as the title sequence begins, this sequence shows the men we have just seen walking around empty streets and in less than reputable places. The shows title is in the style of a helicopter's spotlight, which could link to a police helicopter, which links with the theme of crime, as well as black and white shots that are made to look like CCTV footage. The director's name and other creators are superimposed onto the screen. We see low angle shots of the gangsters to show their power.
We then cut to an interview with Dominic Noonan, there is an extreme close up of his hands for the first part, which bare a lot of golden jewellery while also creating an air mystery, then a cut to his face, also in an extreme close up to show the expressions on his face as he recalls a story of one of his many exploits.
Archive footage is also present in the first five minutes to give the audience a better idea of what has happened in Noonan's life, footage that the film makers would have been unable to show otherwise.

Conventions of Film

• Establishing shots at the beginning introduce the audience to the subject matter, usually with a voice over on top.
• Archive footage which allows the documentary to show footage they otherwise would not have.
• Talking heads who connect to the audience.
• Incidental music, quietly behind the talking head or interviewee's speech or loudly otherwise to give a sense of atmosphere.
• Interviews with experts which give the audience confidence that the documentary is trustworthy.

  

Adverts

The 9/11 Faker

One Born Every Minute

An Idiot Abroad

Conventions of Adverts

• Channel name, so people know which channel the documentary is on.
• Time and day, so people know when the documentary is on.
• A picture that shows what the documentary is about.
• The documentary's title.
• A form of tagline to entice the viewer.