Statement of Intent

 Brief Chosen: You work for an independent media production company. You have been given the task of producing a three-minute opening sequence of a documentary for BBC Three and two web pages on the BBC Three website about the documentary.

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and meet the requirements of your chosen brief?

For my documentary I plan to use media language to create a three-minute opening sequence of a documentary exploring social media, which will have a clear concept of being informative and entertaining whilst investigating issues affecting young people in society. This will be used to appeal to the target demographic of a socially conscious, 16-25 middle to up market demographic to reflect BBC Three's remit, which is to bring younger audiences to high quality public service broadcasting through a mixed-genre schedule of innovative UK content featuring new UK talent. The documentary will be part of a series featuring a new presenter who falls into the target demographic alongside two documentary subjects of a similar demographic, whilst providing new innovative content which will appeal to younger audiences. To achieve this, I will use a mise en scene of urban/trendy settings to reflect both the superficiality of social media, whilst also including more rural settings to juxtapose this and connote the two sides of social media which both of the interviewees will portray in their characters. My presenter will be dressed in casual and stylish street wear, as the focus of my mise en scene is portraying the two opposing lifestyles of the social media influencer and activist. The high end, trendy outfit of the influencer reflects the materialistic side of social media whereas the outfit of the social media activist is thrifted with accessories of badges that represent the various movements they are affiliated with. Furthermore, my social group of class will be represented through these contrasting outfits. My documentary will have intertextual links to the BBC Three documentary series 'Stacey Dooley Investigates', with two distinct social groups of class and age represented. I hope to convey both the superficial and beneficial side of social media that is used by all ages, but the main focus is on young people to fit with BBC Three's remit. This is a relatable and educational theme for my target audience as it draws attention to social media and explores different sides to it, to hopefully allow them to make socially conscious decisions about how to use social media. I feel that this is a very important topic to explore in my documentary as according to a recent survey by Harvard IOP – How Millennials Use Social Media (2015) – 51% of those aged 18-24 use Instagram, and Instagram is the social media platform I am discussing in my documentary. I will edit using the appropriate codes and conventions for a documentary, for example using graphics for my title, credits and to introduce my documentary subjects, and also using pull-quotes of dialogue in my opening sequence montage, which is inspired by the BBC Three documentary 'Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out'. Throughout my opening montage, I am planning to include a voiceover by my presenter alongside background audio reflecting the upbeat nature of the documentary. I will also include a wide range of camera shots and angles in my documentary, including a vairety of close up shots and establishing wide shots which are appropriate to my theme. A clear sense of branding will be evident in my documentary, including the BBC Three logo featured throughout my documentary alongside the website linked at the end as part of a competition, alongside using three main brand colours across both media products for my documentary to create a sense of branding.

Product 2: 

For my website I plan to use media language conventions to create two web pages on the BBC Three website about the documentary. The website will appeal to my target demographic of a socially conscious, 16-25 middle to up market demographic to reflect BBC Three's remit, which is to bring younger audiences to high quality public service broadcasting through a mixed-genre schedule of innovative UK content featuring new UK talent. The BBC Three website uses the full range of digital platforms to deliver its content and to build an interactive relationship with its audience, and I will reflect this in the interactive aspect of my website. My website will feature multiple original images of my documentary, alongside the BBC Three logo and my production company logo. I will use appropriate conventions for my website design, I want to create a title that provides a recognisable theme for my website, that reflects the target audience ages of 16-25 and is interpersonal but professional, as my presenter is a member of the target audience so is relatable to current trends and events. As my documentary is a BBC Three production, I want to show convergence between my documentary and BBC Three whilst being fully expressive in my website design of my documentary genre, so I am including the BBC Three logo in my header. I have been inspired by Stacey Dooley's BBC Three page for the tabs for my different pages, as the content of my documentary is similar to her socially conscious episodes. For the image in my header for my show I want to include an original image of my presenter as this website is for her documentary series. The content on my website will be appropriate and appealing for my target audience, featuring a competition and a podcast alongside various social media being advertised, as well as a segment 'Tuesday Takeover' where the audience can write blog posts about their interests. The social media influencer and activist that both feature in my documentary will also be heavily feature on my website, including in my audio-visual content. For my audio-visual content, I will include my documentary and I will also provide content which is inspired by the popular BBC Three segment 'What Not To Say', which is entertaining and socially aware, both of which are appealing for my target audience of 16-25 year olds. There will be a strong focus on the interactive element of my website, encouraging my audience to get directly involved by following the social media pages linked, whilst also providing information and advice about the topic of my documentary, which is social media. As my documentary is part of a documentary series, my second web page will feature previous episodes of documentaries by my presenter, the content of which will be heavily influenced by my socially conscious audience of 16-25 year olds, and so will reflect the nature of their interests e.g., sexism in football.

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production?

A media product must have a highly appropriate and consistent brand image across different media forms, a branding which highlights that the documentary and the webpages are for the same BBC Three documentary and the same intended audience. Some simple ways I am going to plan for this is the consistent use of my presenter and the documentary subjects on the documentary as well as the homepage of my webpage, along with the BBC Three logo and my titles clearly featuring on both media forms to create a sense of branding across both media products, thus clearly meeting the requirements of the brief. I also plan to use highly appropriate techniques to clearly link both of my products, for example my target audience will be directed to the documentary on the website itself. I will assist this digital convergence in the form of additional, audio-visual content which can only be found on the website – I plan for this to be a version of the popular BBC Three segment ‘What Not to Say’, which will include both the social media activist and influencer, who feature in my documentary, answering assumptions about themselves. This segment will obviously refer to the documentary and in the process will hopefully create synergy and brand loyalty to the presenter’s documentary and website. The use of social media in my documentary with the use of a hashtag and on my website with the use of social media icons and usernames will further demonstrate my knowledge of digital convergence, whilst appropriately linking to my documentary theme of social media. Another way I will link my media products is through the competition that the viewers can enter, with my presenter mentioning the competition as part of a feature at the end, where she will direct viewers to follow the link below to BBC Three to find out how to enter on the website that I will create.