During the editing stages of my documentary I incorporated some conventions I had seen in mainstream programmes broadcast to ensure my own production followed these themes, this would allow it to be as authentic and professional as what I could possibly achieve. Essentially my film would be complying with the standards seen in the media industry itself to this day so I felt I had effectively regulated myself to working with the conventions to not only please my audience but distributors as well should they ever stumble across my film in the future.
It is a conventional trend that in most professional documentaries, especially with those focusing upon serious life issues that require some sort of justification, facts are commonly inserted into the main film, this provides further emphasis over the matter being discussed and directly informs the reader of important knowledge that will help them develop more understanding on the subject. For example in my own product I included authentically checked facts about anorexia, allowing me to confirm not only how many individuals suffer from the condition but also acting as reinforcement to the viewer that it is more common in society then what they may initially perceive. Facts are commonly associated with health related shows, these can be identified in episodes of 'Embarassing Bodies' which require further emphasis upon an illness, such as indicating statistics of how many individuals suffer from it, since my production is health occupied in addition I feel as if I have complied to these standards extremely thoroughly.
Although not present in all documentaries I decided to add as an additional preference, the names of the girls to their stories at the start of their own individual clips. I felt this would be essential in creating an emotional link between the audience and the girls speaking on the screen, therefore they can recognise that this is their own personal experiences they are speaking about that have no been manipulated by the filming crew in any manner. Moreover it establishes to the viewing public how sensitive the issue will be, as the women involved may have not spoken about these events to anyone previously, furthermore this aids in the audience being able to elicit a form of empathy towards them and to admire the challenge they are doing by speaking to a camera without any prompting. The use of the word 'Story' explains how the content that will be described in the footage actually occurred therefore is true to real life and was not a staged event which personifies the realistic nature of the programme further.
I decided to include the names of the girls and their family members in the running time of the filming. This illustrates to the viewing public the people on screen are genuine, real life individuals who have names and occupations - rather then just being a nameless model in the sequence. To me it also aids to emphasise that emotional connection even more between the target audience and the girls that they can identify them by their own name and to show they actually exist within our society as members of the public. This is a common element I witnessed in many of the health related documentaries - especially the likes of the programmes 'Supersize vs Superskinny' which often used the naming process to allow us to recognise the stories being spoken about (particularly the anorexic ones) involved real people that live amongst us.
The addition of extra footage of the girls personified that they conform to ordinary activities allowing us to realise there is more to them then their anorexia alone and that they are perfectly capable of engaging with average life occurrence without difficulty. It also aided me as a method to break down all the interview sequences, if the viewers were to continuously watch endless amounts of interviews then it would very quickly become monotonous and would cause them to disengage with the content of the programme. To avoid this happening I knew it would benefit me to have this extra filming, to make my documentary more appealing and interesting. For the sections where the girls were preparing food I altered the colour consistency to black and white, not only did I recognise this would follow the conventional black and white theme that was running continuously throughout my three products but it helped to distinguish the problem that is being addressed- the anorexia nervosa itself. This differentiates it from the rest of the footage to pinpoint directly the cause of these girls problems and to show it is the 'danger' in all of this that is causing the 'black and white' irrational thinking of the females themselves. I'm taking a unique approach by altering the colour like this as I have not witnessed it within a mainstream product just yet, so I'm hoping it will be effective in justifying its job.
The use of archive footage within the running time of the documentary allowed me to re-illiterate the severity of the girls conditions and how dramatically and frighteningly the anorexia had not only devastated their physical self but also how it had consumed them mentally as an additional side effect. I'm hoping these kind of images will shock the viewing public, as I feel the 'shock factor' is truly the only way I can reverberate my message within the content most effectively - literally how this evil illness robs so many people of their lives and the potential they hold within their beings. It also aids in showing how this awful event actually did occur in these women's lives and hopefully justify to the viewers that they should never have really been subjected to this fate at all. Through the incorporation of photographs from the girls personal files, phones and cameras it further emphasises their anorexia actually took place as these images offer valuable insight of the occurrences that have happened in the past. Additionally using archive footage of them when they were healthy indicates they did have a relatively average and happy life before the illness stuck so the audience will be informed they weren't always like this, preventing them from assuming the gild have suffered from this all of their lives. Traditionally in health related documentaries this type of footage can be seen to offer an understanding of how severe an individuals condition may have developed to use as the 'shock factor' I previously described so in this respect I feel I have conformed to regular technological standards in the media industry.
I decided to use extreme close up shots to really emphasise the importance of particular scenes, these were commonly used in my documentary when the subject being interviewed talked about a serious matter - this allowed me to capture their entire facial expression and emotions they emit to re-affirm the sheer vitality of that particular sequence as what was being spoken about was critical to the foundations of the content. Hopefully this would confirm to the target audience how severe the girls anorexia turned into, this should provoke an empathetic response which is what I'm intending, not only that but it informs them how the condition is not a 'phase' and is seriously a life threatening mental illness that claims lives. I have commonly seen shots like this during major scenarios in documentaries when something concerning is being detailed - whether this is health related or about other instances such as an interview during a war film.
Additional footage of the ducks in the park were used in the style of an establishing shot to act as a continuation sequence from when the girl first entered, this implies a closing scene - by this point she has left the park, not only that but her story is now at an end and we are ready to move on to another. This is a closure essentially and indicates how she is tying to deal with her illness as best as what she possibly can yet it will always be lingering there in the background, just as how the birds will linger in the safety of the park.
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