Research and Study of Conventional Examples

In this lesson, research was undertaken into conventional examples of both music videos, documentaries and promotional packages in order to pick a brief.

Having already created numerous short films for various purposes, I thought it would be wise to explore untouched territory; such being to possibly create a documentary (the ancillary tasks being to create a poster for a newspaper, as well as a double page spread for a listings magazine). With an interest in Reality TV documentary style, it seemed plausible to document the preparation of my schools production of Hairspray the Musical; recording all areas of activity from audition to performance. Ideally, this style would be of large homage to the likes of The Apprentice and Sky One's Grease: The School Musical-where by tasks and challenges are documented by a fly-on the wall camera crew.

I instantly began to look for extracts of Grease: The School Musical which demonstrated a conventional presentation of reality TV documentary editing, cinematograthy and narrative structure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO7UL09AHps

I found that this extract possesed examples of fast paced editing (infamously known as MTV-Style Cutting) such being an extremely conventional form of contemporary reality TV documentaries. Throughout the extract, a wide range of fade-ins, fade outs, white outs, flash frames, strobe lighting, and slow motion effects are used, simply conveying the high-energy style of the likes of the musical "Grease". It is due to this that I must duplicate this approach to editing, making sure to express clearly different emotions through either fast or slow cutting speeds, at the same time creating an engaging and proffesional piece.

The animated logo sequence at the start of the extract is a pivotal display of identifying the documentaries target audience; the iconic Grease logo making apparent it's relevance to fans of the musical, as well as the fact that both the background and the words "Musical" bear resemblance to the "High School Musical" poster; a brand immensely popular with young teenagers.

In order to create a conventional documantary in the style of the studies extract, as well as to identify my target audience, a possibly idea may be to create a similiar template, through a mixture of Adobe Photoshop CS4 and animation through Adobe Premiere Pro CS4-putting together a series of bright attractive colours, and quick flashy movements.

Cinematograthy in the extract is highly stylised, containing a large amount of low angle shots, side views, whip pans and crane shots. Obviously I will be unable to aqquire the funds or the equipment for that matter to use a camera crane, meaning that I must make up for this through severe concentration on the composition of my camera work in order to create equally impressive and yet original cinematograthy. In order to draw a strict relationship between the documentary and the school, I have decided to make low angle-side view shots of the schools street sign an almost iconic presense in my documentary-important due to the need to remind the viewer of the involvement of school students. This will be an essential shot in the development of my storyboard.

Music will play an essential role in the engagment of my general audience and the aim to create the most conventional reality TV documentarty possible. The frequent use of Audio FX such as wooshes, swishes and flashes are crucial to create a relentless and exciting atmosphere in it's presentation; as well as to exaggerate and "spice up" the already stylished camera movements. It is therefore pivotal that I have the correct array of sound FX, as well as making sure that each individual piece is archived correctly on my computer (to make for a smoother editing session).

The use of music from the soundtrack of Hairspray will also be an extremely important element, neccesary to link constantly to the themes of musical and drama.