Production - Editing Intro/Title Sequence

TITLE SEQUENCE from Grace Salmon on Vimeo.



To make my intro for my documentary, I took around 75 photos of celebrity cutouts from a variety of magazines. I moved each magazine cutout slowly up the shot in order to create a moving image scene.


I imported the images from Photos into iMovie. I changed the duration of all of the images originally to 0.3 seconds each. However, this made the clip around 30 seconds long and would be too tedious and boring for the audience to watch. I then changed the duration from 0.3 seconds down to 0.1 seconds, as this made the clip shorter and more aesthetically pleasing.
I added text on the right hand side on the last image and this is where my documentary title will be displayed when I have chosen my title.
For the intro music, I downloaded the song 'This is the life' by Two Door Cinema Club and used the first thirty seconds of the song as it is just instrumental music. The music is upbeat and fits the theme of my documentary. It is similar to music that I have heard on Channel 4 and BBC Three produced documentaries.

Research - Findings from documentary analysis

Codes and conventions I found from completing my documentary textual analyses:

• Range of shots (establishing, mid-shot, close-up etc.)
• Variety of different interviews 
• Subject often placed in one third of the frame (rule of thirds)
• Middle class, older male presenter
• In expository documentaries, there is often a 'voice of God' narration.
• Cutaway shots anchoring what is being said
• Non-diegetic music used in the background 
• Archived footage often used 

Research - Ancillary Product Textual Analysis: Seven Days

Production - Editing Progress

I enhanced some of my footage, which made the sound louder and clearer and made the shot was brighter and more visually appealing. I also started to add in some still image cutaway shots. These included pictures of reality TV shows, such as Keeping up with the Kardashians and Love Island because these shots anchor what the narrator is saying about celebrities and reality TV shows. After editing today, I realised that I still need some more footage and cutaway shots that will make the documentary flow better, as it seems a bit broken up.

Research - Documentary Textual Analysis 4

Stacey Dooley - Billion Pound Party Textual Analysis

Research - Media Theory: Stuart Hall

Stuart hall from Grace Salmon

Research - Media Theory: Steve Neale

Production - Editing Interviews

I started editing some of my interview footage with a student, I enhanced the contrast of the video and also increased the audio, as well as placing a cutaway shot that anchors what she is saying over the interview. However, after editing the interview I realised I may need to go back and film the interview again because the noise from the computers in the background reduces the sound quality.

Planning - Narrative Arc

This is a narrative arc of my documentary. I wrote down what I would include if I had limitless time and funds to film a full-length documentary. This helped me to choose where in the documentary my five minute extract would come from. I decided to film my extract as if it was the beginning of the documentary where the question/investigation was introduced. I then decided that I would include around two to three interviews, various cutaway shots to anchor my preferred meaning and some statistics because this would follow typical documentary conventions.

Research - Documentary sub-genres

Documentary sub-genres

Channel 4 - they include a variety of different documentary, their most popular sub-genre would be the lifestyle genre. Due to this, Channel 4/E4 would be the most appropriate channel for my documentary to be broadcasted on.

Channel 5 - they had a variety of sub-genres of documentary on their website, but their most popular ones included crime/prison documentaries and animal documentaries, which is why I would not broadcast my documentary on Channel 5.



BBC Three - Some of the sub-genres included on the BBC Three documentary page was history, music and arts. Similar to Channel 5, their most popular documentary sub-genre was crime and justice, and also the arts sub-genre.

Research - Documentary Textual Analysis 3

Planning - Initial Footage

Here is my initial footage filmed on an iPhone 6S. I need to get some more cutaway shots, as well as some more footage of my narrator/presenter in different locations, such as on her way to film an interview and arriving at the interview etc.

Planning - Script

I wrote out a script for my narrator/presenter to read as I wanted the narrator to mention particular topics and celebrities. I also wrote a script for my one of my interviewees because I wanted her to convey the preferred meaning of my documentary. However, I also allowed the interviewee to include any other information that she had an opinion on because I did not want the interview to be entirely staged, I wanted the interview to have a sense of verisimilitude.

Research - Audience Profile

Audience Profile

My target audience would be teenagers and young adults aged 14-24, who have an interest in social media, reality TV or celebrity role models.

They would mainly be in the E demographic because most of the target audience would be students, but many may also be in the BC demographic.

Psychographic – Aspirers, like to stay on trend, materialistic and focused on their appearance and image.

My secondary audience would be parents, particularly mothers, who would be interested in why their children or younger people look up to celebrities and reality TV stars.

Planning - Location and Talent Shots

Location Shots

Research - Choosing an institution

Research - Statistic/Facts on Celebrity Influence

I have found some statistics on celebrity culture and celebrity influence over youth. All of these graphs and articles showed that celebrities have a negative influence on young people. Therefore, I will use these statistics in my documentary to anchor what the presenter says about negative celebrity culture, which should help to anchor my preferred meaning.

Planning - Shot List