Research

 This is my research on the documentaries.

1. Worst Roommate Ever

Documentary Opening 1: Worst Roommate Ever
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	My expectations for the documentary would be the lady causing havoc inside the apartment/house or possibly something that is connected with crime. The image shows a meaning like a ‘mugshot’ which may relate to crime, the lady also looks roughed up which signifies that she may have done bad things. The title also says ‘worst roommate ever’ which connotates that she may have bad intentions as a roommate or in general she may just not be nice at all/evil. I expect to see arguments or a crime event that connects with the lady within the thumbnail and hear yelling or cop sirens.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Crime lovers because, the media tells us about bad things that relate to roommate of hers which could lead to crime and for young teenagers. Camera : Close-up, it shows a close-up of the drugs which may mean that the drugs are used for something related to the person that was being talked about within the movie. Mise-en-scene : The environment is gloomy and the colours of all the houses are plain and bland which implies that something traumatizing happened within that area or environment. Editing : The flashbacks to the kid shows that the lady is a mother of a child and it shows that she cares for that child very much. Sound : There was a lot of dramatic sound effects or suspense which gives off that intense feeling towards the audience and it makes it more immersive for the audience to engage with the media
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	Yes, because it gives us the question that what did the woman do to her that was so traumatizing to the point that it would possibly lead to a crime scene or an unforgettable experience.

2. What Jennifer Did

Documentary Opening 2: What Jennifer Did
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	My expectations for the documentary is that the ‘Jennifer’ person would turn from a very friendly person to a very horrible person because she did something that was too far or just in general bad for everyone. The image shows two sides of ‘Jennifer’ which is a happy side and the all-red image which looks like a mugshot which could mean dangerous or has villainous intent. The image itself also is distorted or has a grainy or a static effect which shows imperfection or damage. The title itself is bold and large showing ‘What Jennifer Did’ which means mystery on what she do.  I expected to see a glimpse of what Jennifer might do relating to the title or hear some police sirens or ambulance sounds.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Target audience : young teenagers, crime-addicted people because, the person that is the main plot of the documentary is a young teenager which may relate to other teenagers that people their age can be doing these types of things in the documentary. Camera : CCTV footage, this puts realism into the documentary to give the audience a more immersive feeling like they are watching the interview in real time and the static feel of the CCTV makes it more tense. Mise-en-scene : Police cars, this gives the feeling that the audience is watching the crime scene on that exact day which gives is that realism and it was shown throughout the introduction and this gives out an intense feeling towards the audience as they watch. Editing : Quick cuts showing areas of the crime scene, which shows the audience in how serious the crime that was happening and it gives out the feeling towards the audience on how devastating it is on Jennifer’s family.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	Yes, because I would be skeptical/curious on why Jennifer was shown badly in the thumbnail while she was the one experiencing the murder of her parents which causes mystery towards me and I want to know more about the plot, it may be some plot twist later on in the documentary.

3. Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers

Documentary Opening 3: Attack on London: Hunting The 7/7 Bombers
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	My expectations from the documentary is that it is going to be very related to police, crime and people that are responsible for the bombing related to the title and the word “attack”. Also, with an investigation of searching for the supposed bombers that caused the attack. The connotations for the image is that it shows several CCTV footage as images which may indicate several angles on where the crime was committed and the colours of the footage were very a bit gloomy which may mean a traumatizing-ish or a tense feeling towards the audience. I expect to see lots of police on the scene, interviews related to the crime and as well as the tense music on the background with also the bomb explosion to add the intense feeling.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Mostly crime-lovers as this documentary really relates to crime and the cops and SWAT was in the opening and it may seem fascinating to them and it happened in multiple locations which causes mystery why they do this as well. Extreme close-ups, which show location names that the crime may have happened which may relate to the crime later on as the documentary was more explained. Very gloomy lighting on the interviews, this may mean that the people that were interviewed may have traumatizing experiences and this makes it a tense yet sad feeling towards the audience. Quick cuts, this gives off that intense and immersive feeling towards the audience like they are in the crime-scene when it is happening. This also gives off a sense of urgency or chaos towards the audience as it was happening very quickly. Dramatic and suspenseful music, this makes the opening more immersive for the audience and makes that chaotic and intense feeling. In addition, this can be also used to grab the audience’s attention quickly as the dramatic music starts instantly.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	Yes, it is very interesting as it shows multiple footage of the real actual crime from different angles and how different people were interviewed for the audience to hear how the event happened or how it felt.

4. American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden

Documentary Opening 4: American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	My expectations for this documentary are something related with war, terrorism, government, and the country as the title says “American Manhunt” which may imply the whole country would be in a manhunt for the person. The image shows a very dark green colour which may imply that it is night vision to give a serious look towards the thumbnail as most people inside the army doing operations at night have night vision goggles. The image also shows a man dropping down a helicopter and we can clearly see several people with guns at the bottom which can relate to the pursuit or the ‘manhunt’ the title is talking about. The old-static touch on the image gives off that sense of mystery or threat.  I expect to hear explosions, sounds of guns popping, people screaming in the background and to see chaos, special forces, governments and the chaotic events that caused the ‘manhunt’.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Mainly adults that are interested in crime or historical events, because this documentary is based on a real-life event that was devastating to the country and traumatizing for most people that experienced it, watching this must be very sort-of very informative or interesting to hear different perspectives of the event. The establishing shot shows a location which has a very important meaning towards the main event that can give off a bit of a clue or hint for the audience to maybe decipher or try to understand. Use of real-life locations, this gives the audience that immersive feeling like they're experiencing this event in real time. This gives that realism. Quick cuts, this gives the intense feeling and suspense towards the audience which gives off an emotional connection like between the audience and the voice-over in the documentary. The audio recordings of the main antagonist of the documentary gives that real feeling that they're in the manhunt as well giving off that immersive feeling. The quality of the audio made it seem very real as well as it sounded very old and there was a bit of static in it.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	Yes, because the whole plot and the suspense kept it very interesting to keep on watching and the switch between the fake footage and the real actual footage towards the event made it even more entertaining to watch even for the opening. Including all the important people involved in the interviews made it more serious to watch and I was sitting upright the whole time watching the opening.

5. Deadly American Marriage

Documentary Opening 5: Deadly American Marriage
Before You Watch
Look only at the thumbnail and title. What are your expectations for the documentary? What are the connotations of the image, font, colour, or title? What do you expect to see or hear in the opening?	My expectations for the documentary is most likely going to be about a murder or something worse as the title says “Deadly” which may give that murder-type of vibe or possibly crime. I’m also expecting a lot of shouting, yelling, arguing between those two couples that is shown in the thumbnail. The thumbnail shows an old-looking photo that could be taken by a polaroid camera which gives off that odd feeling in the thumbnail. From what I see from the woman in the thumbnail, she looks very unhappy while the husband looks happy and smiling, which could give a clue to the audience on who could be the problem later on in the documentary. I expect to hear police sirens, ambulance sounds, interviews from the possible crime. I expect to also see the crime scenes, the camera footage of the crime or the post interview.
After You Watch
Who is the target audience? Why do you think so? Give one example of each and explain the meaning: Camera: Mise-en-scène: Editing: Sound:	Young teenagers and adults as I see it more to the more mature side as I can see that this crime documentary can fit to their liking and there are also like “marriage” in the documentary can also target adults as they may find it interesting in how marriage got so “deadly” relating to the title. Close-up camera angle, it was showing one of the objects that was used in the crime scene and it was all bloody which shows that someone has been murdered or possibly very badly injured, this gives the audience a sense of mystery or question on how it gets this bad that it leads to a murder and this could also highlight an important detail for the audience. Relating to the sense of mystery given like “how was a brick possibly there on a nightstand?” on the audience  Gloomy old lighting gives that crime feeling and this sense of dread towards the audience as the documentary shows several pictures of the crime scene in those lighting and gives an uneasy feeling as well.  Flashbacks, there were pictures of the kids shown in the documentary introduction which can relate to the future problems or clues within the documentary, this also gives a sense of mystery onto why they are included because it was only shown that the husband was the victim and the two suspects thus, it gives mystery towards the audience. Suspense and dramatic music, this gives a more intense feeling and more immersive towards the different photos of the crime scene or when the person being interviewed is talking in a serious tone which makes it feel more real like the audience is talking to the person directly.
Would you continue watching? Why/Why not?	No, because I’m not interested in how romance and crime could connect and it just doesn’t fit my type of documentary style that I would watch just from the opening itself. The plot of the documentary was a bit too obvious and predictable for me personally, so it isn’t that enjoyable for me to continue again.

Statement of Intent

 The Statement of Intent was made by our team member Kim. 

Statement of Intent

Sub-genre (crime)
Murder	Reason: we chose this sub-genre because school based violence like murder can be very rare and can have a significant impact to students, teachers, staff and the whole school environment.
Topic
student kills student / academic rivals
Primary Target Audience
Demographics: Teens to young adults Aged 17-30	Reason: we chose this age range because they can be mature enough to watch and understand crime related topics and handle sensitive or gory scenes like violence or substances like blood.
Psychographic Students in high school / university  Top students / smart students	Reason: we chose students because they can relate to the school setting and environment, they can understand how it is in the school environment and can be engaged by the sudden shift or change of the murder.  We also chose smart students as our psychographic target audience as they can relate to the academic pressures and competition with one other in a school setting. This can hook them as the academic rivalry goes beyond what is normal or is expected.
Message (Dominant Reading)
How academic pressure can escalate into dangerous and tragic consequences	This message shows how constant academic competition can create tension that builds into something no one could expect. It explains that rivalry, jealousy and pressure can push people beyond their limits, leading to tragic outcomes.
Characters
Interviewees => 4 students (2 victim’s         friends, 1 nerd’s friend, 1 teacher/counselor,         2 bystanders) Victim (rich student) Suspect (nerd) Interviewer Victims friend group (4 friends)
Representations (groups, places, events)
Groups:  Rich / privileged students Nerds / hardworking students  Places:  School  Events:  Murder Academic rivalry	Reason:  => they are represented as powerful and having advantages due to wealth which shows inequality in the academic environment. => they are represented as intelligent but socially excluded. This highlights how pressure, jealousy can build frustration.  => the school is represented as a competitive and high pressure environment where different social classes stand out which symbolizes how rivalry grows in academic spaces.  => this shows that there is more than just competition in the school environment which is caused from academic rivalry and jealousy.  => this is represented as a shocking climax of the tensions which shows the impact of rivalry and social inequality.
What will be the hook? (The mystery that keeps audiences watching)
“How did a simple academic rivalry end in a murder?” this keeps the audience curious to know more about how the murder happened and who is the perpetrator

Brief

 Here is the Brief for my Crime documentary.

Team

 THIS IS MY TEAM FOR THE CRIME DOCUMENTARY PROJECT

Bams, Alex, Mila, Kimora

Weekly Progress & Plan

 This is our Weekly Progress

Week 2

This week, we made the blog post on brief, team, weekly progress and the research posts. We also watched a few documentaries to research on to get hang of what the conventions or tropes of what crime documentary is like or a documentary. In this week, I have a more wide idea of creating a documentary with my brand new team that the Media Teacher made for us. 

Week 3

This week, we made the Statement of Intent and the blogpost with our team and we discussed what will be the main idea of the whole documentary we will be making in the next few days or weeks. The main idea was a finance crime documentary between two businesses and we have yet not fully confirmed either that will be the main idea or it will be something more simpler. In addition, we learnt a new theory which is Livingstone & Lunt. The teacher made a very good explanation on the theory which made it more simpler to understand about media regulation and how big companies can easily avoid regulations. Also, we watched a few news on the internet about misinformation, but we also learnt about disinformation aswell. ( misinformation is when the people does not know about either if its false or true, whileas disinformation is there is an intent on posting that false information )

Week 4
In this week, we did storyboard on our team to get a idea on what the scenes should be in for our crime documentary project. The person that is in charge of the storyboard is Mila. We are also finding locations that are suitable for our plot/setting and we haven't found the exact location for the 2nd location but for some scenes the locations would be in our school as the plot is about a murder on a teacher by a student. The person in charge of that task would be Kimora, and I'm the person in charge of the script and it would be dialogues on the interviews. Lastly, there are new terms in the media which is the power in the media which there are 3 groups that can have power within the media which are the companies, individuals and the governments. In this case, we used Twitter in our case study to study of this topic.

Week 5

In this week, we did more work on our storyboard with my team and we finally have the main idea and plot finally figured out and we are going to start filming this week on Friday. This means that we would have made a filming schedule for when we are going to film the other scenes for our crime documentary. The whole class also researched upon the Jessica Wongso case, which we learnt with new topic on how the media represent people fully. Furthermore, the teacher told us to use AI in some of our classworks to get a more understanding to make AI a more useful source and not to "copy and paste" instantly. Instead have more prompts and make a more better answer with all the theories we've learnt and others such as representation, audience and industry from media contexts. We also learnt more about Power in the Media and why, how and who are the people that have power within the media. 

Week 6

In this week, we are starting to do our CR ( Critical Reflection ), there are 4 critical reflections which are essays. Our team has also started into filming our crime documentary and has started with the intro and several interviews with the actors. We had to retake some couple of shots as some shots were rushed and it wasn't up to our preferences, it is fun to have some different members in our team as it is more diverse and people have different skills on each tasks. Which can make this documentary more simpler and communicative to do which could improve the quality and plot of the whole crime plot, we are going for. Next week, we are going to start learning about Media Ecology and how technology advanced relating with movies that are dystopian fiction. Overall, this week had been very fun and full of topics to talk about relating with media regulation, CR, and our filming.

Week 7

In this week, we are starting to finish up our video clips for our documentary while Alex starts to edit the documentary. Also, we need to retake some of our clips as it was a bit rushed and the audio was a mess and there was wind blocking the actor's voice. Although, next week we will be taught how to make a thumbnail or the features of a thumbnail, I will be the one in charge for making the thumbnail.

Week 8

In this week, this is the deadline for our crime documentary project and we are finishing up all the blogs, thumbnail and the main documentary. This was the busiest week for the media class. I also finished up the critical reflection with the questions that the teacher gave. It was very stressful making the thumbnail as it was very rushed although, it was good enough to conform to the video documentary.

Week 9