Advanced portfolio Critical Reflection

Representation is the way in which aspects of society and social identity, gender, age and ethnicity are presented to an audience through specific media products using specific media language. Documentaries are in the representational medium as they show and reconstruct everyday reality viewers cannot typically experience themselves. My documentary is based around a “normal, generic” family with the Mum, dad, son and daughter with the aspects of arguments and them showing their different personalities. My ideas behind this was to try and get the audience to relate to the documentary on a personal level. I did this through using different voice overs explaining what had happened prior to the documentary (covid 19). The Representation of the family throughout the documentary tends to be a more frustrated and argumentative. I can relate this to Robert Flaherty’s work where he altered the situations to create representations which supported his ideology’s. However, if the audience looked past that the family tended to be short fused they still manage to sit all together on the same couch and talk no matter how claustrophobic them seem. The red couch where we see the family together and individually represents the heart of the house, as throughout the documentary we keep referring back to it as the family members discuss their thoughts and feelings. The couch its self being red a bold colour which connotes to the audience that it could be suggest either love or anger. These opposing emotions I think help to describe the family that is being shown. As I think that a family also doesn’t just represent one thing, I think that it represents multiple aspects such as love, caring for each other and also arguments and disputes.

My target audience is people between the ages of 15-40 as I think that my documentary is made to appeal to anyone who has lived through the corona Virus and can relate to the typical family arguments and differences that are portrayed throughout it. For example, the first scene with my family viewed in the documentary is a scene of them arguing which I think is quite abrupt and is made for the younger generation audience which I think suits their humour. Within my social media and my magazine article I used techniques that would engage and attract my target audience. I did things such as use hashtags which would hopefully trend and help market my documentary. The posts which are present on social media are things which the audience can relate with such as going on walks in lockdown and the struggle of trying to stay motivated in lockdown. Throughout the posts on my account there is also comical side throughout which I think acts good advertising for my primary audience as it will help keep them positive. My secondary target audience would be the wider population as I think as it being about lockdown and knowing that as a global population who have all had to live through it and can see on a personal level and relate to the documentary. However even though they are not my main audience I think it really is suited to fit a wide variety of viewers all different ages.

My documentary is based on a family facing the coronavirus and the problems they face that comes with it. A documentary is ‘The creative treatment of actuality’ that Is John Griesons definition of a documentary. That’s why I tried to keep my documentary sort of raw and straight to the point of the truth of lockdown. Throughout my documentary I used montage in certain areas such as the opening when I’m showing the audience my research into lockdown we see the computer from all different angles. My inspiration for using montage would be from Sergei Eipsten and his production of the ‘battleship Potemkin’ as it shows how important montage is and how it can portray to the audience a theme. My documentary includes the typical conventions such as I based the majority of it around my Interviews I made. I wanted to get the unfiltered feelings from the family and show the audience the “reality’ of family in lockdown. The social dilemma (Netflix) (2020) is a perfect example of using a family to get a message or connect with an audience. I found doing one interview including the characters and then separating them off would be the most beneficial way for receiving that connection with each character. I looked around at lots of magazines which I analysed and identified the codes and conventions. I chose ‘GQ’ magazine as I thought the slick and stylish design would really fit my target audience.

Finally, for my social media as looking at many different documentary’s pages\accounts I knew I wanted me to really make the audience engage and be interested in being active on the posts. Therefore, I think I wanted it to look relatable. I kept to trying to keep the colour palette to connect with the images which was a blue theme. Which as it being striking would stand out and attract people to it.

‘Family Fear and loathing in lockdown’ is a play on words I used to create a light-hearted and relatable title for my documentary I have used this throughout all my products. I did this to connect and engage the audience with my target audience as the could connect and maybe share the same view point. This ideology I used help create a brand connection throughout my products. I’ve used bold colours in all of my products as they help connote different feelings to the audience which is shown through the documentary. My social media includes shots from the documentary and I’ve tried to use the same fonts as it helps the audience establish a theme and idea of the documentary. One of my main selling points for the documentary is that it is suitable for a wider range over audiences as the variety of ages and views it shows can relate with people of all ages as you can watch it as a family.