My media is in a documentary genre. Within my Short Film I used may aspects which are typical do a documentary. For instance I had the aim/introduction of what my documentary was about before showing the title of my film. Another thing I did which was typical of a documentary genre is to see the presenter and interviewee's driving in cars, documentaries often have this as interviews move on from one to the next. Furthermore, I also interviewed two experts within the field that I was talking about, experts too are often included within documentaries, what they're experts in simply depends on the topic of the documentary. In my case, this was body image therefore I chose a plastic surgeon and a lady that performs lazar treatment. Something else which is also true of documentary format is using unsteady/shaky shots. Not all the shots that I used were perfectly steady, something which is varied in documentaries. With all these things in mind, it shows that a lot of what I have included conforms to a typical documentary style. This can be seen as a good thing, as it means people pick up on and recognise documentary conventions that i've used, however a negative thing because perhaps I should've pushed the boundaries of what documentaries usually include and gone for something a bit different. Having said this, as so many documentaries include the elements I have above, it suggests that in order for a documentary to be good, they include similar aspects.
Something I did which challenged the forms of a traditional documentary was instead of summarising the interviewees points by showing a presenter talking about what they'd said afterwards, I used images on the screen to convey this message whilst using a voiceover. I said the same thing as I would've done if i'd have been on the filmed myself but through the form of images. In some respects I think this worked well, as I wasn't featured as a presenter throughout due to practical reasons, I felt showing me summarising their points could've been slightly confusing. Usually documentaries show the presenter talking about the interview afterwards. Cherry Healy usually does this for instance by giving her opinion outside where the interview has commensed or when going home on the train for example.
Another thing I did which is slightly different to the traditional documentary style was what whilst interviewing the plastic surgeon and Victoria who performs the lazar treatment I kept changing between their interviews. One moment you'd see Victoria answering a question and the next you'd see Dr Clibbon answering the same question. It is usual to see a question being answered one person after another straight away, however because they were in the same location and because Dr Clibbons interview was in quite a boring set up, with him simply sitting down directly in front of a camera, I felt it worked well to swap back and forth between the two of them.
What usually happens in documentaries is that one interview takes place and then it moves forward and another person is introduced, they don't swap between interviews just like that. In some respects I also conformed to to this traditional concept, as this is what I did when moving from The Sk;n Clinic on to Beth's interview. I feel the balance between using this traditional element, combined with something a different like I did when swapping between Victoria and Dr Clibbon's interviews worked well.
Another element usually seen in documentaries is the interviews taking place in a location that is relevant to the person involved. This I conformed to as a filmed Victoria/Dr Clibbon where they work and Beth at her Sixth Form. Having said this, usually in documentaries you see someone being interviewed in their home or at a local cafe, something which isn't done in my Short Film. I didn't chose a cafe due to the fact they're often very noise environments and I did film my Nan at home, however her interview I didn't feel worked that well so wasn't included, this then put me off doing interviews within the interviewees home environments. I do feel however, if I had more time in my short, I would've interviewed some more people and one of these more likely would've been that their house. For instance, I probably would've filmed Alice who has suffered from anorexia at her home, in order to see pictures of her when she lost weight and how far she has come.
One obvious thing I conformed to was how long my Short was. It was a Short Film lasting just over 5 minutes which is approximately how long most short films are. One way I challenged traditional Short Films however is my genre its self. My genre is a documentary and it is usual to have a short film that is in this genre. This was proven by the fact I found it difficult to research Documentary Short Films, not a huge amount came up in comparison to a genre like horror for example. If I was to stay true to the convention of a typical documentary, my Short Film would've probably ended up being made into a television programme, like those screened often on Channel 4.
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