I produced a table to make my notes on so I cut jot bits down as I watched and scanned it in. I looked at the first episode from the first series of the office, 'Down Size'. This mockumentry is in the form of a television series and is based around the day to day running of an office in Slough (UK.
As I wanted to gain extra ideas and compare conventions I also watched Drop Dead Gorgeous, the mockumentary Beth looked at. The film was based on the contestants of a beauty pageant, filming the fierce competition and lengths they will go to to win. My notes are much more basic than the ones I took down for The Office as that was the one we decided I should annotate.
Camera
Actors are aware cameras are there (most of the time!)
When characters are interviewed by the crew they are either looking slightly to the side of the camera or right into the lens
Point of View shots
Establishing shot at the beginning
Hand held camera – out of focus & shaky at times
Actors looking directly into the camera lens, right at the audience
Zooms & Depth of Field used frequently
Mise en Scene
Set all over the place, however the main setting is a school (natural)
Acting is over exaggerated – false at times
Natural lighting, make and costume up to fit the situation
Props to hand if characters need them – also very natural
Editing
Messy/sharp cuts
Texts at the bottom of the screen, introducing characters like in a documentary
Some non scripted moments are included in the final film
Sound
Crew talking behind the camera
Sometimes awkward moments
Mainly diagetic sound
Bridges between scenes
The analysis of current mockumentaries already out was vital so we knew what we had to include in our own. As we looked at two we were able to easily compare and work out conventions which allow the audience to identify the genre. We took into consideration that our research may be limited as we only looked at 2 mockumentaries in detail however we believe we received enough analysis back to be able to create our own and make it successful. We noticed that the camera work used in both mockumentaries was similar and established the genre. The crew talked behind the camera and it was often handheld, looking shaky and therefore more realistic. The actors were also aware a lot of the time that the cameras were there so looked directly into the lens (when being interviewed for example) or past the camera towards the crew. The editing was similar in the way that some cuts were messy and sometimes not stuck together chronologically. As well as this we noticed that in both mockumentaries text was written at the bottom of the screen, documentary style, showing who is talking, where they are/who they are and even a time or date. The majority of sound in the two mockumentaries we looked at was diegetic, meaning that the characters as well as the audience could hear it. There were however a few bridges with music where time had passed or the scene changed. A convention that I personally had not thought about but picked up in the analysis was the lack of sound between characters, indicating realistic awkward moments. Mise en scene was mainly natural, like the lighting, costume and setting for example. We did notice the obvious over exaggerated acting however which is used to distinguish the mockumentary genre. We plan to take all of these conventions into account when coming up with our script.
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