Critical Reflection

 By Researching into documentaries from multiple different genres, I identified various conventions, such as the common use of the master scene method and mise-en-scene (Fig.1) that matched with the topic of the documentary e.g fashion; with the music and lyrics being matched to the general tone of the brand of fashion and what it represents. Setting the image and representation of a contributor and product through sound elevates the overall tone as it represents that industry as being the fast pace and new as well as bold, by using quick pace sound with the underlining sentence of 'young fashion' I make a bold announcement on the feel of the industry and the product; ‘Vivienne Westwood- Renegades of Fashion’ uses this convention in their documentary as it represents the brand and industry.

My contributor has an image that is pre-existing that is elevated by my production, using the term 'young fashion' highlights his rising success in the fashion industry, the fast pace use of sound presents him and his busy career choice of being a designer as it is an industry in which you have to keep up with the latest trends and be on the ball against many other designers. My documentary represents a young male in the industry,  my documentary represents the challenge that exists in creating a name in this industry, through my use of extreme close-up (Fig.2) shots of my contributor, I express a sense of invasion represented in the industry. In the opening part of my documentary you are presented with a very close-up shot of the contributor, it adds to the idea of the eyes being the window to the soul as we are seeing this industry from the point of view of someone starting to develop a name for themselves in the industry, the close up shows an intimidating expression which represents the competition that exists within the industry. The shot is very personal and elaborates the idea of the creative innovation that the fashion industry has on its designers.  My documentary represents young males in the fashion design industry, as it is a largely women dominated career path as we can see by the statistics; 73% Female and 19.5% male. I portray the niche group of men in the fashion design industry in a positive light by portraying the journey that exists in this industry to bring designs to life, it is portrayed positively as I show that there can be successes for men in the industry that is female-dominated I do this by including images of the contributor participating in a prestigious competition (Fig.3)as well as I use bright lighting and strong colours in the mise en scene to highlight the creativity and designers, the bright artificial light highlights the contributor and his rise.

Throughout my course work, there is a strong sense of branding using the ' Youth fashion documentaries' logo as my example (Fig.4), I use minimalistic colours to represent my brand as a creative canvas. My product has a strong sense of branding that can be seen over a large set of cross-media convergence. Using my own developed production company ' Youth fashion' I was able to set the general tone of my product from the very start, keeping my production company plain emphasising the canvas of creativity that designers have to develop their personal creations and ideas such as Lucas describes his urge to bring his ideas to life. After my research into other documentary production companies such as national geographic, I was able to notice that the industries like to use minimalistic colours varying from two to three. My design represents the creativity of the industry. This is most commonly seen throughout my clear branding on my website and merchandise page(Fig.5). My website represents Lucas my contributor to be starting out in the industry and is still developing their creativity, which is expressed through the use of black and white inversed representing the idea of a hidden canvas covered by the black of finding creative expression through a starting idea represented by the white; this idea can also be seen through my font as I use ‘Valence’ font which is slanted, curved and sharp, its array of different element presents the different mediums that exist within fabrics and fashion and the slant of the letters represents the movement of the body that wears the fashion (Fig.3). Representing my product over a large range of media helps accentuate the relativity of the image of the product and attract the necessary target audience, using social media, magazines, videos and websites I accentuate my brand and create the widest advertisement available to the product reaching a wider audience. By using the repetition of my product within my website in different media settings such as merchandise, logos and advertisement I create a select group of elements that creates a sense of production that speaks strongly of the position of the contributor.  Value identity is crucial in creating an image therefore in my website I wanted all the design elements and products to work smoothly hand in hand I did this by ensuring that I kept all the images and fonts in the same colour pallet as well as ensured that the font represented the simplicity of having the freedom to create as I wanted to represent my contributor as best I could, making him a relatable character to the audience. The campaign repeats the branding across all media. By representing my contributor's work I represent him and create a sustainable and recognisable brand. This idea follows the concept of Stuart Hall who claims that “ These representations do not reflect reality but they are engaged in defining reality. Rather than ‘transmitting already – existing meaning’; the media through the active work of selecting and presenting, of ‘structuring and shaping’ are ‘making things mean’.  This is the essence of representation.” Documentaries and factual television all imply that there is truth in their products however as my research into Richard Dyer star theory would support, producers, make the necessary choices that would construct meaning e.g the construction of meaning through the font I use, the questions I ask, the location etc, creating this image through my branding establishes my contributor and creates his character that the audience can relate to which is done through branding. 

My products strongly engage with my audience through my use of film, and use of social media. I create a relatable and factual piece of film that expresses the industry from the point of view of a young male making himself a title in the industry. My product speaks and relates to my target audience being 18-34 years old, who are the most interested in watching documentaries as my research supports. My contributor aged 23, is more likely to relate to my target audience as he is within the category which makes him a relatable character. In my documentary, I use predominately a master interview shot (Fig.6) that creates the sense that the audience is in a direct conversation with the contributor it makes the interview more personal and intimate which engages my audience. I also use BTS images(Fig.7) on my website and Instagram page to make the audience feel a part of the process which allows them to engage with the audience which gives my audience the gratifications and diversions from their day to day life that they crave, as they can feel a part of something else; it is an escape. By my audience feeling engaged they will buy some of my merchandise as they want a physical and tangible element of the product proving their engagement, this represents a physical interaction that shows engagement such as liking and sharing my social accounts and posts. (Fig.8)  By releasing and publicising release dates I am able to set up a pre-existing audience and fan base for my product engaging my audience this is mainly done on my Instagram. I gratify my audience with the actual real-life scenarios of the industry and tangible products. By posting my contributor’s work I also create a sense of identity for my production company and for my contributor publicising his work and designs. The questions I use also ensure to understand the industry and the contributor at hand, by having questions that are personal to the contributor it makes the overall documentary feel less fabricated and more relatable to the audience. By having a specific genre of documentary with a niche target audience, my social media fashion posts, magazine and website relating to the upcoming dates of release allows my audience to find information that also links to Blumer, McQuail and Browns use of gratifications and surveillance as the product can easily be pulled from personal data and targeted towards my audience.

My product strongly uses conventions through every product, including, merchandise site, website, social media, video and magazine covers. Using magazine covers as my main example, in total I made three separate magazine products that represent different forms of magazine advertisement such as fashion blurbs and covers. After researching magazines representing similar products, I identified various conventions such as font that represents the genre and what it represents as well as the use of minimalistic images that represent the designer/ artist, and simple clear designs that represent the subject being represented and creates a focus on the genre being represented e.g fashion an example that would support my findings are Vogue front covers. I wanted to incorporate these themes in my magazine covers to match the conventions discovered creating a strong representation of the physical media. Strong elements of photography are commonly used on the front of magazine covers that represent the contributor to create a preconceived image of them, this supports Andrew Goodwin’s star image theory as we are creating an image for the contributor through image and marketing e.g magazines. I used the convention of photography to demonstrate my contributor which was inspired by a magazine called ‘Numero’(Fig.9) that uses black and white colour schemes as well as using the conventions commonly seen in ‘ Documentary international’. By using the master scene shot in my documentary and upbeat music I also represent common conventions seen throughout fashion documentaries as my research would support. I predominantly followed the conventions of a normal fashion documentary as this displayed most effectively what my product was representing in the fashion industry, however, I subverted some conventions such as I showed a miniature fashion show in a long shot that establishes the creations of the artist which is uncommon to be shown however I believe this showed an invaded insight into the capabilities of the contributor and displayed him through his work. In my Vogue magazine cover(Fig.10), I also challenge the general conventions of magazine covers as I present my contributor through his work and designs, by showing one of his sketched designs, this allows my product to stand out against the rest. I decided to have my contributor as a young male in the industry which challenged the fashion documentary stereotype as the fashion industry is predominantly presented by women, by presenting a young Spanish male I represent the youths that are making their choices in professions and inspire them to see that there can be success even in the minority groups of the fashion industry being males, males are not represented strongly enough in the industry of fashion and my product allows males to be more strongly represented this is also done by having a young male model presenting the fashion pieces. Through my strong use of mise-en-scene in my documentary, I also use the conventions of the design industry to show the genre e.g sewing machines and fabrics.

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