Compare the conventions used in
documentaries and mockumentaries.
Shot
variety and purpose.
In Summer Heights High, there are a variety of shot types
used. For example they use close up and over the shoulder shots. We see this in
the mockumentary when we get an insight into a private meeting with the
students and a teacher in his office. This makes the audience think that the
mockumentary is a real documentary because it is using the shots that a
documentary would traditionally use. As an audience we feel special because it
feels like we are witnessing an interview which is supposed to be private.
Different shots are used because if they used the same shot the whole time, as
an audience we wouldn’t be entertained.
Another shot that was used was the mid shot which focused on one
person’s face while they were talking so that we are concentrating on the
characters rather than what is in the background, they try to take away any
distractions the audience may get. In The Tribe they use the same type of
camera angles so that when the producers or directors want the audience to
focus on a certain thing, they will use a certain shot so that the audience
know what to look at. Because of what the tribe is about, they need to use
close up shots, so the audience can focus on the detail of the bees.
Quality of
footage.
Another device I am going to discuss is the quality of the
footage. From watching Summer Heights High and The Tribe, there is a big
difference in the quality of footage. In the documentary, ’The Tribe’, is HD.
This is so that the audience can see every detail of the footage. You can tell
that it has a high production value, and that it could have cost a bit more
money to make sure the footage was perfect. However, the quality of the footage
in the Mockumentary, ‘Summer Heights High’, wasn’t as good as the footage in
the documentary. It is just normal budget quality. Documentaries and
mockumentaries do not have the same quality of footage because documentaries
weren’t always in HD, they used to be normal budget footage that no one wanted
to watch, the mockumentary now has the budget footage that the documentary used
to have, so that it can take the mick out of the documentaries. Another reason
the mockumentary doesn’t have HD like documentaries is because if they had HD,
it would look like it was planned, which ruins the whole idea of the mockumentaries.
Interviews
and narrator.
The next device I am going to discuss is interviews and
narrator. In summer heights high, we can hear the school children in the
background to let the audience know that the interview took place in a proper
school. We can also hear swearing from the interviewees. However we do not hear
interviewer talking, we can only hear Jonah’s answers. This is so that we feel
a connection with Jonah, and we feel we are a part of his group while he shows
us round the school and lets us into his everyday life. Whereas if we did hear
the interviewer talking, we would feel that we are being ignored, as he is
getting in between the audiences connection with Jonah. In this interview, the
school children speak slang, and he also swears a lot, this makes us feel that
we are a part of his group, because if we were someone that he didn’t know, he
would speak more formally. It also makes the audience laugh. In the tribe, we
can hear the interviewer, Bruce Parry, a man talking in another language, and bees
buzzing in the background. When Bruce uses pauses and fillers like ‘erm’, it
shows us he is thinking about the right questions to ask.
Observational
Shots
The fourth device I am going to analyse is observational
shots. In the tribe, the shot type is an over the shoulder type to make us feel
like we are part of the team. This shot type is also used to make the audience
feel safe and protected by Bruce as he is standing in between us and danger.
This makes the audience feel he is very brave. On the other hand, in summer
heights high, there is an interview in the head teacher’s office, and we are
looking in from a window as if we are a naughty school child peeking in to see
what has happened. This also makes the audience feel special as we are seeing
something no one else would usually see.
Voice Overs
The fifth device I am going to explore is voice overs. In
the mockumentary the language used is informal slang, and sounds unplanned. For
example “and stuff” shows that he feels that we are part of his “gang” because
he can act informal and himself around us (the audience), however, if he
thought that the audience were strangers, they would be more likely to use
formal language. In the tribe, the narrator uses formal& descriptive
language words which show that the target audience is more intelligent ad could
be a bit older than those who watch the mockumentary. The point of having a
narr
