Critical Questions - Advanced

Critical Questions 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use and challenge Conventions? 

This essay is about my A2 coursework documentary, ‘Mountains Bite Back’. Documentary is a technique of showing a non-fictional plot to get an essential message or theme across to your target audience, being defined by John Grierson, who was known as the ‘Father of documentary’, as “the creative treatment of actuality”.

My product follows the typical conventions such as drone footage, interviews and voiceovers, being an expository documentary. I took inspiration from David Attenborough’s ‘Planet Earth’, which allowed me to understand how these conventions are used correctly for a documentary of this nature. I filmed my interview in a conventional way to contrast the fast-paced action of the Mountain Rescue teams responding to callouts. Unfortunately, some of this material had to be taken from their own archives, because of the health and safety contraints of being able to film them myself. My decision to include this footage was becuase of the vital nature of the visual impact to represent the rescue teams. This juxtaposition allows the audience to almost ‘catch breath’, in between the Mountain Rescue footage. In addition to this, it allows the audience to fully take in what the interviewee is talking about, making the documentary overall more impactful. To further drive this convention, the inclusion of ‘peaceful’ outdoor footage arguably drives the action of Mountain Rescue’s callouts, again, generating suspense, with the mountain footage arguably juxtaposing the dangerous nature of the mountains.

During my research, I was also inspired by Vertov’s photos in ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ (1920), which lead me to being more experimental with my visual storytelling. I implemented this technique into my own production, specifically during my interview, by positioning the interviewee (Chris Lloyd) in front of the side of one of the Mountain Rescue vehicles, which meant that the words ‘Ogwen Mountain Rescue’ were clearly visible in shot. My intention of this being for the ‘bold blue’ writing to explain what the documentary’s overall theme is, along with the interviewee’s occupation. 

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

My product focuses on the issue regarding mountain safety. My aim was to produce a documentary that targets this issue, being a topic that is ‘lightly’ covered in terms of awareness. Mountain safety is often a topic that is overlooked, despite worsening over the recent years. By creating this documentary, I hope that people to learn that the mountains can be highly dangerous, particularly if you are ‘ill-prepared’, or simply do not have enough experience. My product can also represent Mountain Rescue England and Wales. Throughout the production, Mountain Rescue’s characteristics are expressed thoroughly, being hard working, efficient and determined. By interviewing a serving Mountain Rescue member, it almost allows the audience to interact with Mountain Rescue at a more personal level. Furthermore, with the inclusion of the interviewee discussing emotive and ‘brutal’ topics regarding this issue, it generates an overall increase in power within the documentary. 

My other products, such as my Instagram page, further express the representation of the mountain safety and Mountain Rescue. The Instagram page includes posts of mountain landscapes, along with a specific post about the interviewee (Chris Lloyd). By providing some information about the Mountain Rescue member, it allows the audience to build a relationship and understanding for the interviewee before they have even watched the production, along with targeting a representation of my production, being Mountain Rescue, and that people can be irresponsible with regard to mountain walking and ultimately risking theirs and other’s lives. Hence, this would be my secondary target audience, with the hope that if they watch this documentary they will be more responsible when doing an activity of this nature. 

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding? 

My products all express the theme of my documentary, being the issue regarding mountain safety. My main production, being the documentary, features footage of mountain ranges, to effectively ‘set the scene’ with regards to the topic. Images of mountains can also be frequently seen on my Instagram page, with a variety of images acting as a ‘teaser’ for the documentary’s release. The topic can also be expressed through the inclusion of Mountain Rescue across my products. In the documentary, the inclusion of extensive Mountain Rescue ‘call-out’ footage can be seen, along with the interviewing of Chris Lloyd (Chairman of Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue). Alongside this, my Instagram page contains posts specific to Mountain Rescue, such as a post about Chris Lloyd, and ‘teaser’ posts, consisting of Mountain Rescue vehicles. The inclusion of Mountain Rescue almost acts as a representation of mountain safety, being the organisation responsible for the saving of lives on the mountains. 

In terms of my company branding, the logo includes mountain imagery, to link with the overall theme of my production. The ‘Webster Films’ logo can be seen on the Instagram page, both as the profile picture and on the announcement posts, along with also featuring in my magazine DPS. The logo can be seen at the end of my production, acting as the ‘credits’, to further drive the branding element. Company branding can also be seen through the head producer, ‘Myles Webster’, who would be a continuing contributor to any future products. 

Due to my production being released to Netflix, the inclusion of Netflix is prevalent across my products. On my Instagram page, the announcement posts contain the Netflix logo, to emphasise where the production is being released. On top of this, the Netflix logo features on my double page spread, again to emphasise where the production is being streamed. 

How does your product engage with audiences? 

My products are aimed towards hillwalking and mountain enthusiasts, both novice and those who hold a concern for mountain safety. My production engages with both target audiences by expressing the issue regarding mountain safety throughout. In order to ensure the message is delivered to the ‘novice hillwalker’ audience, I kept the production simple. I felt that if I made the documentary too complex, it would simply ‘offput’ the audience from watching the production or simply confuse them. I achieved this simplistic style by having my interviewee talk slowly and use simple, yet emotive language when discussing the issue. Looking at my other products, my Instagram page is easy to follow and read, being mainly mountain images, with the inclusion of information about the interviewee and myself. My magazine article follows a similar approach, with the ‘interviewer questions’ being simple and relatable to a novice hillwalker. Alongside this, I aimed for my product to be educational towards this target audience, with the hope that it will allow viewers to become better educated regarding ‘mountain preparation’, therefore hopefully reducing the amount of incidents on the mountains. 

In addition, the audience being those who share a concern for mountain safety can be engaged through the fact that an issue of their concern is being expressed throughout the products. By including a Mountain Rescue member as my interviewee, it allows this audience to almost build a relationship with the individual, as they share the same interests. The interviewee covers the concerns Mountain Rescue have, which are not too dissimilar from those of this audience, allowing them to relate and engage with the production.