Culture in the digital age | Informing Ideas

 

Interpreting The Brief

The company CMP media has approached me and asked me to create a media product in the form of a short documentary which relates to the topic of culture in the digital age. They have informed me that the targeted audience is from the ages of 13-19. This tells me that i need to tailor the documentary to the younger age ranges so the topic of the film needs to appeal to them. The documentary is going to be shown on social media as this is where majority of this age range spend their time this means they will have a higher chance of seeing the documentary. The films time length can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes, however a this is going to be shown on social media then i think if we make it too long then the viewer will get bored and leave the viewing. The deadline for the finished product is the 22nd of January therefore i am going to have to plan each week in in order to meet the deadline with a finished product. The documentary has to appeal to this age range so i have a few ideas an example of this would be to create it on film making. This is because this age range likes to watch films an series on the internet or in cinemas. In the documentary they will learn about how their favourite films are created and how the films were created back in the day so they can see how much the digital age has improved film making. They will find out how certain directors have their own unique styles and get an insight on how the big budget Hollywood films are produced and what goes into each film. They will also find out how they can shoot films themselves with the improvements in technology and how it makes film making more assessable for majority of people.

Mind Maps

Here are two mind maps which show two different ideas which the documentary could be based around. As the target audience is from ages 13-19 there was a couple choices which i believe would stand out to them. One being films and how they're made the other being music and how music has progress with the digital age. Both of these topics would appeal to this age range as both are big things with the younger generations. The music one would teach the viewer about how music accessibility changed through time and how the digital age has affected the way people make, create and listen to music. The film making documentary would teach the viewer how film making has changed and how the digital age helped the film industry also how film making is more accessible to more people now in terms of equipment and softwares.

Existing Products

An example of of an existing short documentary is this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_L5acJht3g ). This documentary is about a historical event and is constructed in such a way that it keeps the audience engaged. The use of the 2 shots where both people are in the frame together gives the effect that we are there with them and we are having a conversation with them. This keeps the viewer engaged as they talk directly to you with direct address. The use of the mise en scene makes the viewer feel as if they are in museum due to all the historical props in the scene, this helps create immersion and get the viewer into the subject of the short documentary.  They edit in a way where they can show images and or videos when they talk about the specific thing, this is so that the viewer as a visual representation of what is being talked about incase they can hear very well or just miss what they say. It also helps people visualise and create an image of how they think that the specific thing is used.  

In my own documentary i could make the scene relate to my topic. For example i could put cameras and related props in the background of the scene to make it more visually appealing to the audience.  I could also put images and short videos over the main video in order to show clearly what i am talking about. These are just a few ways that documentaries are made to intrigue the audience .

Here is a second documentary which is longer than the first (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ngqk1?playlist=x6ievv). This documentary uses a lot of Mid shot and first person shots in order to make the viewer feel as if they are there in the scene, they have done this because this is a serious documentary which is telling the real life story of what has happened in the passed. For most of the interview style shots they use a shallow depth of field to have complete focus on the subject in question. This is so the viewer can not get easily distracted from the main point of focus and keeps them draw into the scene. In this documentary they use many facts in order to educate and inform the viewer on the real life situations that went on. In this case it also successfully raises awareness about the crime that is going on around us in everyday life that we are completely unaware off. This is done by using first hand accounts from people who were there to combat it and who was actually dealing with the problems at hand. The way the frame keeps moving and changing to display something new will interest the viewer and keep them engaged in the documentary.

This could be useful as it could help me interest the audience by using similar camera techniques as this documentary in order to try and engage my audience by changing the scene often so they keep seeing something new and wont loose interest.    

Research

From the mind maps I created i can see that there is more to talk about in film making and how it advanced than there is in music, this is not to say there is nothing to talk about for the music one just stating that film making appeals to me more and there is a broader range of things to talk about when discussing film making. 

A key example of music before the digital age was the fact it was recorded onto tapes therefore needing a cassette player to play your tracks, Before that there was records which needed record players. This was impractical as you could not listen to music on the go which is something we take for granted in the digital age. When the digital age came around CDs were invented which made listening to your favourite tunes more portable as cd players were smaller than tape players or record players. This is when we saw the rise in cd players being fitted into cars so people could listen to music on the go. This is just one thing you could discuss when you talking about how digital age changed music. 

When talking about film making you could talk about how certain people such as Thomas Edison and Louis le Prince invented the camera and the bit of controversy that followed the discovery. Then talk about how people made films following that with examples such as Alfred Hitchcock made films during the 60s. Then talk about how the digital age improved film making with examples such as Steven Spielberg. From their i could go to to talk about the advancement in equipment and software to make it easier to get the perfect shot. Examples being drones, stedicams and editing. 

Google Form

 Here I have created a google from to have an insight on my possible audience to get to know what films they like, what directors they like and so on. These forms are intended to gather information to help with what i can discuss in my documentary, this could mean that i explain more in special effects if the favoured genres are heavily edited such as sci fi films. It also collects information to find out if the viewer has ever edited a video / film to see how much i need to explain about editing films. I asked what films they like to find out which directors and why they like certain films over others. This will ultimately help produce a better end product tailored to the audience.