Typography for opening credits

 As I am basing my documentary style on Dawn Porter, I feel it would be effective to replicate the typography used in her documentaries. I have decided to call my piece 'VIV GETS REEM' to copy the sharp, punchy titles Dawn uses such as 'Dawn gets a Baby' and 'Dawn gets her man'. I would like to use the same font style as Dawn but make the word 'REEM' stand out and link to the Essex fashion trend the 'vajazzle'. This then ties in effectively with 'The Only Way is Essex' glamorous opening titles.

Opening credits for Dawn Porter Documentary

The Only Way is Essex opening credits

This is the first design I tried for the opening credits. I used Impact font for 'VIV GETS' to replicate Dawn Porter's documentaries. I then used separate diamonds to spell out 'REEM'. I feel this looks effective and fits in well with the image I am trying to create.

Documentary Storyboard

Below is a storyboard of the documentary I wish to produce

Presenter Image

Now I have decided I am going to base my presenter's interview style on Dawn Porter, I am ready to focus on her appearance. I have looked at a range of style models to decide what hair, make-up and clothes will be most suitable for the image I am trying to portray.

On the left is an image of the well known presenter Fearne Cotton, who tends to alternate her use of make-up with different fashion styles. 

This image highlights her dynamic use of black eye liner, blusher and bright red lipstick which gives a retro effect. I feel this will be an effective style to replicate for my presenter.

I have taken the inspiration from Fearne's make-up styling and recreated this for my presenter. This is shown in the image on the left with the bright lip stick and dark eye make-up.

I have also focussed on hair styling which here appears very natural with wavy, layered hair in a centre parting. This will also emphasise her natural style to contrast to the over exagerrated 'Essex stereotype' appearance.












Dawn Porter's casual style:

Anna Richardson

Here, I have based Viv's style on Dawn Porter and Anna Richardson's casual looks they adopt in their documentaries. This shows they both don't want to draw any focus and attention on themselves so don't emphasise their looks. This gives the impression that both women don't want the subjects to have a perception of them and therefore remain more objectional. I feel this would be an effective image to recreate.

I have completed this style with a casual stripey tee, green jeans, black blazer and casual black loafers (very similiar to Anna Richardson's image)


























Jenny Frost's smart appearance

Above is an image of Jenny Frost who is wearing an all black outfit, completed with a formal blazer. This portrays the apperance of sophistication, highlighting that she takes pride in her style and emphasises this in her work. It may also give the impression that she understands she has an important role to play and therefore shows great interest with the publics opinion of her.

I then replicated Jenny's formal style, dressing Viv in a black chiffon dress with a cream collar, black tights and black pumps. This sophisticated image is also reflected in Viv's different hairstyle which is pulled back off her face giving a more professional approach.
































Caroline Flack

Caroline Flack is becoming more and more of a 'fashionista' with her on-trend and constant glamorous image. However, she always appears natural which makes her a friendly and approachable figure in the media. She tends to wear dresses and playsuits, contrasting femine and funky styles which is a good approach for her presenting role. Also, this style would appeal to the youth of today and therefore I feel would be an appropriate style fror my presenter when interviewing individuals in Essex.






 I decided to style Viv in a trendy leopard print dress with a black leather jacket (very similar to the above images). This reflects Caroline Flack's combination of two different fashion styles. Also, the familiarity the youth will have with this style will be effective as individuals will be more likely to engage with her.

I am going to use this outfit for my final style as I feel it is the most successful for the role of the presenter. It doesn't conform to the 'Essex stereotype' which is labelled as 'fake' but isn't too casual that individuals won't connect with her.

Introduction Script

Having analysed the style and techniques adopted by Dawn Porter, I have decided this is a great template to use for my own presenter.
I am now going to plan my introduction script, highlighting what the purpose of the documentary is.

Long shot of Dawn watching television in her living room
whilst her voiceover is used to introduce the episode

Before deciding on the introduction, I studied the opening sequence of Dawn's documentary 'Dawn Gets a Baby' to look at the camera angles and scripting used. I noticed she tends to be in a familiar environment such as a living room or a public place. Her voiceover is also used to introduce the episode and emphasise her intentions.




Close up/side shot in the same location
















Side shot of her walking in a park. Her voiceover is still used at this point
















This written code is displayed after the opening narrative,
just before the documentary begins
















My Introduction Script
The following script will be read out as a voiceover by the presenter (Vivienne West).

'I must confess, I'm a self obsessed reality TV junkie. But sitting here reading this magazine about one of my all time favourite reality shows 'TOWIE' has got me thinking, how much of this is really genuine. Does it reflect the true nature of the average 18-25 year old in this much talked about English county?'

The presenter will be sitting at her kitchen table, reading a magazine about cast members from The Only Way is Essex. There will be an over the shoulder shot to begin with which will slowly zoom, focussing on the magazine. This is when the voiceover will finish.

Viv will then look up at the camera, with a close shot and say the following:
'My names Vivienne West and my mission is to put this question to bed once and for all. I am going to take myself to Essex to see for myself and I can't think of a better place to go than to one of Essex's famous Nightclubs 'SugarHut' to talk to the real people of Essex. I'm sure to find a variety of youngsters who will hopefully be prepared to talk to me and give me a true insight into their lives. I hope to find out just how much is fact and just how much is fiction.'

Dawn Porter: Documentary Analysis

Now I have looked at the style Dawn Porter adopts in her writing, I want to analyse and deconstruct some documentaries she has produced. This will provide me with a deeper understanding of the successful codes and conventions used to make a good documentary. As well as looking at camera angles and editting, I will also be looking at the scripting referencing to what she says and how she says it and moments where Dawn is talking alone.


The following is a clip from Dawn's documentary 'Extreme Wife' where she investigates why men have left America in search of love. I chose to focus on this clip as it used careful editting throughout which I could replicate in my production piece.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A3dFPuJzh4&feature=related

The interesting aspect that first stood to me when analysing this clip was  the way Dawn intereacted with the subjects. She is sitting with them at a dinner table asking them questions, making it feel more conversational rather than like an interview which allows the subjects to open up more about their lifestyles. It also gives the impression that Dawn is more interested about their lives.

The use of cuttaways emphasises this as it shows Dawn's reactions and how she is taking an interest into the responses of her questions.

Dawn's voiceover in this clip is an effective feature I feel would be good to replicate in my documentary. She does this to introduce the people she is talking to whilst they are all sitting around the table, for example 'Jean is another divorced truck driver with a dry wit'. This is said over different shots of Jean interacting with the group and close ups of him. This provides the audience with background information about each individual Dawn talks to. I therefore feel this will be a good way of introducing subjects in my production piece.

A range of camera shots are used throughout this clip such as long shots, close ups, mid shots and over the shoulder shots. Using long shots is an effective convention as it allows the audience to view the location and surrounding making them feel more involved with the text. Close ups and side shots are used to get a better reflection of the subject and to focus our attention on their facial expressions. I feel these will be effective features to use when producing my documentary.



Side shot of Dawn showing her reaction and facial expression







Long shot emphasising the location



Close up shot to obtain a beter reflection of the person talking

Dawn adopts a friendly, colloquial tone similar to her style of writing which makes her questions less intense. It is clear that she has a set list of questions she wants to ask the subjects to obtain the information she needs. However, once she starts questionning them, she responds to their answers as they have introduced another issue and therefore does not stick to a set script. I feel this will be effective when producing my documentary as the people I speak to may say things I want to discuss further.
She doesn't appear to judge the people she interacts with but her opinion is shown through her voiceover. For example, 'he strikes me as someone with realistic expectations' shows her opinion about one of the men. I feel this reflective tone would be another feature to replicate for my production piece. 

Dawn Porter: presenter style model

After looking at some of the techniques used in documentaries to create certain effects, I now aim to decide what particular image to create for the presenter in my piece. I feel this is a very important aspect that impacts the overall success of documentaries.

I looked at Dawn Porter as a style model as she is known for her interactive style documentaries which I feel will be successful to adopt when I produce mine.

I decided to analyse her website 'Dawn's World' and blog 'The Dawn Report' to look at the ways she uses media language in her entries. This would then enhance my understanding of her particular style and characteristics to replicate in my production piece.

Firstly, I analysed the Homepages of 'Dawn's World' focusing on the language features she adopts to convey her personality:

This page was very useful as it provided me with certain elements I could use when scripting the narrative for the presenter in my documetary. To provide further insight, I looked at her blog entries posted on The Dawn Report.

This particular blog entry highlights that Dawn adopts a friendly tone in her writing even when talking about a serious issue such a Breast Cancer. She also opens up about her personal feelings which creates a close, familiar relationship with her audience. I feel this is an effective approach to use as this is what makes her a likeable character.

Here, Dawn is discussing a stereotypical topic 'shoes'. She is quite opinionated and this is shown throughout her writing but again she ensures she adopts a colloquial tone. Her common use of rhetorical questions is essential to engage the audience and therefore an effective technique.




I also looked at the language she uses on social networking sites such as Twitter. Here, her tweets illustrate that she has a humorous personality, not taking herself too seriously which reflects the character she presents whilst filming.

As I am going to analyse an episode of her documentary 'Extreme Bride', I looked at interviews about this to see if I could gain further understanding about the way she presents herself and what effect this has on the subjects.

Below is an interview with the TV channel 'Really'.

Her responses show that she finds it hard not to judge the subjects she interacts with, however, to be successful you need to remain objective. Therefore, I will ensure that my presenter does not show any signs of judging the people she talks to.


Her interviewing style has been referred to as quite 'blunt' but she ensures she tells the subjects she is going to be honest and therefore shows good and bad parts in her documentaries. This is an effective approach as she ensures she gets the right responses and doesn't ask questions that may offend her respondants. I am going to ensure my presenter uses this style.

Above is another question taken from an interview with journalist Emma Knock. I wanted to find out if Dawn acted differently whilst presenting. It appears that she is herself throughout but tones down her sense of humour as she doesn't want this to interfere with the content of the documentary.

Charlie Brooker

To gain a deeper understanding of how documentaries are edited, I studied Charlie Brooker's BBC 4 series 'Screenwipe' which contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how television is produced.

Firstly, I looked at Reality TV editing as I felt would be relevant to my study to help me produce my own documentary. This particular element instantly related my production piece as I want to represent the falseness of such shows as well as discovering if people in Essex actually conform to the ‘stereotype’ created by the series TOWIE.

Charlie Brooker's programme showed the following:

• In the early 90's, hard-disk editing emerged allowing different shots to be instantly accessible
• This type of editing allows editors to swap shots over time or change them for others
• Reality TV shows use this technique: 24 hours of footage can be condensed down to one hour of highlights creating a particular story

In this particular episode, he showed how easy it was to manipulate footage a create any story line, emphasising the falseness of programmes such as TOWIE. He used three other people and set up a reality TV programme shot from different angles.Using careful editing, he showed how one piece of footage can be used to illustrate different points and to set things up in certain ways. A piece of previous footage could be used later in a reality TV show showing someone's reaction to another's comment for example. 

The Model Agency



This Channel 4 show gives a documentary style look at one of London's Leading modelling agencies 'Premier'. I decided to study this to see if it had been set up for the audience's entertainment. It provides a deep insight into the lives of young people in this particular industry but it is evident that it contains many scripted parts to create a certain representation.

The following codes and conventions were used in this documentary:

• Snapshots- montage editing from one clip to another
• Scripted parts- telling subjects what to say to make the modelling agency look good/professional
• Close up camera shots of famous models to emphasise their status
• Individuals being interviewed- talking directly to the camera, front on view. Light background to ensure they stand out
• Music- drum roll to show tension
• Written codes- showing the individuals in the documentary, informing the audience
• Close up shots of the models they want to use
• Set up parts: shows someone coming in to the Model Agency who is not tall enough to emphasise how tough the industry is: purposely chose this scene
• Running story throughout the documentary: one of the main models (India) may be leaving the industry- repeatedly zoom in on pictures of her: highlighting she is the main subject (symbolising her importance)
• Side on views- to really display their frustration over this issue
• Represents India negatively- showing she has wasted an amazing opportunity and that this industry put in a lot of time and effort into getting her where she is
• Represents teenagers negatively implying they don't take this seriously
• Shows a young girl who wants to be a model coming into the agency with her family. Scripted parts- telling her what to say and asking certain questions to get the responses they need.