For my practical production, I worked in a group of four to produce an informative/investigative documentary titled 'Dot Com'. ‘Dot Com’ explores the recent fascination in social networking sites such as ‘Myspace’, and presents some of the negative implications brought about by their abusive use, aiming to educate a primary target audience of teenagers on its safe use. The title immediately suggests a connection with the internet yet still creates enigma through its shortness.
When planning our production, we collectively decided to share responsibility for all tasks. However, a lack of commitment and effort from one member led to an overburden of pressure and responsibility upon the rest of the group. Individually, my contribution to the practical production was of a consistently high standard throughout all planning, filming and editing stages. The narrative structure of our documentary had been finalised prior to editing through researching various documentaries such as ‘Parents and Myspace’, enabling us to focus more time on smaller details.
Our documentary begins with a dramatic montage sequence inspired by soviet montage from Dziga Vertov’s ‘Man with a movie camera’, studied in module 2. The montage consists of well known social networking site pages and logos, anchored with a non diagetic parallel song titled ‘slash dot com’. We felt that this song was extremely appropriate as it fits perfectly with the title of our documentary helping to draw everything together and create a look of professionalism. We purposely sped up shots in order to make them correspond correctly with the fast pace and beat of the music, directly appealing to our primary target audience by representing the energy and exuberance of a teenager. Also being careful to make intertextual references to music videos appealing to our target audience through the familiarity and entertainment provided. When introducing the title of our documentary we used bold typography outlined with a white glow making it appear computer generated, appealing to the target audience by directly linking to a main interest of technology and also through creating a look of professionalism by tying in with the rest of the documentary.
When filming internet café’s from the outside we used a fly-on-the-wall style technique in a similar way to the documentary ‘Dying to be thin’, by using extreme low angle shots in order to present the internet as a powerful institution. This is emphasised further through the way in which sped up shots of people walking past help to create a ‘moral panic’ by making the café’s look very busy, thus presenting the growth of technology consumption, making the internet appear as over consumed and out of control to the audience.
We filmed the vox pops using slightly low angle shots in order to contrast they way in which the teenage respondents felt powerful and in control, talking about a situation in which they were most vulnerable. Teenagers from a range of ethnicities such as Black, White and Asian were shown, conveying liberal and anti-racist views. We paid detailed attention to mise-en-scene by purposely selecting computer backgrounds in order to present teenagers as slightly obsessive about the internet. Additionally, we selected certain footage from the voxpops in order to present teenagers as unaware of the risks of meeting strangers from the internet. This could be considered as constructed and mediated, although, as Grierson defines all documentaries are ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ and we felt that it was essential in order to educate the audience on the dangers of the internet’s inappropriate use.
We took an active role and went undercover in our documentary as did Donald Macintyre in the ‘Big Sting’. We filmed the msn conversation scene using point of view shots showing typing hands in order to make clear our cinema verite style. The constructed msn conversation scene between a male and female is accompanied with a romantic diagetic song titled ‘Dot Com’ conveying a heterosexual ideology. Although, the instrumental part of the song is parallel as it helps to build up tension and suspense, the lyrics are contrapuntal as they are ironic, creating a more sinister tone in order to highlight the possible danger to the female to the audience. We applied to key documentary conventions by filming the girl waiting in Ealing using a hidden camera, appealing to our audience by creating a look of authenticity and realism. A high angle was used with the girl in a central position in order to present her as vulnerable to the audience. Numerous cross fades were added to the scene in order to signify the passing of time to the audience. We challenged stereotypes by using an Asian girl in this scene in order to show that teenagers of all ethnicities are susceptible to this type of danger.
Again, In order to comply with key documentary conventions we included a real life story using a victim. When filming we made sure that we considered ethical issues and so withheld the identity of the female as opposed to Michael Moore’s sometimes over intrusive techniques in ‘Bowling for Columbine’. As opposed to just using a shadow on the wall we darkened the room and filmed the female so that the audience sees something 3D instead. This is effective as it is far more emotive as the audience can make out the person, creating positive values by encouraging the audience to sympathise and identify with the girl. We used a female here in order to appeal to our primary target audience of females as well as conform to stereotypes. Instead of just having the scene run through, we decided to add close-up cuts of the victims face in order to be more visually pleasing as well as to show more emotion helping to show the dangers and consequences to the target audience through a sense of shock. Although the real life story seemed slightly long we decided not to shorten it by a great amount as this would reduce its important emotional appeal to the target audience.
We also included an interview with a representative (Sarah Bickers) from a well known charity called CEOP. Safety values are conveyed to the audience when Sarah Bickers is giving internet safety tips to the audience. The tips given are shot with Sarah Bickers looking directly into the camera in order to create a personal relationship with the audience by addressing them directly. A medium shot is also used here as opposed to a close-up shot in order to create a comfortable relationship with the audience rather than an invading and claustrophobic atmosphere. The tips were shown on screen as they were said in a typing effect in order to appeal to our audience by providing entertainment as well as educating them in a subtle yet effective way. Additionally, various cutaways were included in the interview in order to keep the primary target audience by making it seem more visually pleasing. One of our main weaknesses in the Interview was that our technical proficiency suffered as a result of external microphone interference which we were unable to rectify. We decided to keep the parts of the interview with the disturbance as they were vital to its structure.
We conformed to the Todorovian narrative structure in order to create narrative pleasures for our audience by fulfilling their expectations. The beginning our documentary with the voxpops acts as an equilibrium. The disruption occurs as the words “jus link em sometimes” creates a sound bridge to the newspaper article montage which presents the extreme negative consequences of meeting strangers online in a shocking way. Various other disruptions such as the Ealing construction scene are shown until a new equilibrium is created through the CEOP interview which provides support and information to both our primary and secondary target audiences.
‘Dot Com’ will be broadcast on BBC 1 as it follows key public service requirements of effectively entertaining, educating and informing both its primary and secondary audiences. We have also chosen to air the documentary at a peak time of 8 o’ clock in order to acquire a mass audience.
Overall, ‘Dot Com’ maintains a look of documentary professionalism through a clear and coherent narrative structure, using key documentary conventions such as interviews and voxpops. Additionally, positive ideologies to educate, inform and to create sympathy are enforced throughout the documentary.
ROHINI
