Free To Play website analysis

The first thing that catches your eye about this website is the fact that there are scenes of the documentary playing in the background along with a slow piano tune. This is immediately different to any viewers as most video game documentaries website's would blast loud arcade music if any. This change presents the documentary as being more serious than most.
As you can see, the block text and white color which contracts with the background images helps to make navigation around this website very easy. Having scenes play in the background is not the only way that this website breaks the conventions. The fact that it does not contain hyperlinks that lead you to another page, other than social networking sites is very rare. Instead the information provided pops up in another window, making navigation much easier as you can very quickly jump back to the main menu by clicking away from the pop-up. For example clicking on 'about the film' will cause this page to pop up.

The documentary is free because of this, the website contains links to where to watch it. The website also directs users to the game featured in the documentary 'Defense of the Ancients 2' (DotA 2). Which helps the documentary to advertise the game as both the documentary and the game it's based on is created by the same company 'Valve'.

The website uses images relate to the contents of the documentary. By using images of players, and crowds at competitions, any visitors immediately know that this is a documentary about the competitors, rather than the game they are playing. 

Conventions of documentary websites / Film festival postcards

Video game documentaries vary greatly from documentary to documentary, though most of them seem to have a simplistic design that usually immediately informs any visitors of the documentary's topic. For example :

The website's pixelated background and flashy colors help to attract people's attention while relating back to retro games. The websites would also contain positive reviews about the documentary and information on pricing, or where to buy it. sometimes other gimicks are used to catch people's attention, such as having random scenes of the movie and parts of the movie's soundtrack playing in the background. Another convention of documentary analysis I've noticed is having a simplistic website, with clear links. This is prominent in websites that are used more for marketing.

Film festival postcards aim to inform people about the genre and mood of the festival using color and images of the card. 

For example you would not expect this to be screening a modern action film or a horror movie, as the picture is quite simplistic. Another convention of these postcards is to contain the name of the festival in large letters to stand out from the rest. The front of the postcards are usually designed to attract attention, which is why they are usually not real photographs, but colorful drawings such as the one above. This is because the information is normally contained at the back and may contain quotes by reviewers usually stating good things about it. 

They typically don't contain much writing on the cover and are usually made to be artistically appealing and eye-catching. This is why the title of the movie is written in the largest text and stands out the most. Every postcard tends to include a feature that relates it back to it's topic or genre. For example, indie game contains a controller which instantly tells people it's about video games, even if the title wasn't there. We will be following this convention for our short film as well.

Documentary analysis

Free-to-play is a participatory documentary which follows different E-sports competitors and professional gamers and documents how professional gaming and how gaming in general has effected their lives. This participatory documentary stays true to the conventions in many ways.

Firstly, the documentary is able to engage more than just fans of the gaming industry by including exclusive interviews of well-known celebrities from other sports, such as NBA player Jeremy Lin of the Los Angeles Lakers.

This also helps to help paint professional gaming as more of a sport since professional players are saying it is "Just like basketball." These comments also help to elevate the gaming community from its stereotypical image. The documentary is also clearly trying to reach out to a larger audience than just the gaming community. This is shown through its instructive annotations which explain the basic elements of some video games, as well as the rules of the growing E-sports competitions.

This documentary also presents the views on gaming in different countries. This allows it to transcend its 'gaming' topic and show cultural differences in general. Such as how a family from Singapore seems to be against their son's decision to become a professional gamer, and think he should focus more on his education while in Korea, professional gaming is more popular than football. 

In free to play, the story progresses through interviews. Normally, it would introduce the person speaking, then cut to relevant footage which they will continue voicing over. This is much more engaging then simply watching somebody speak, and keeps the audience's attention throughout the documentary. This also helps to clarify what the person is saying. Or to show what they see in video games by using CGI scenes that are exclusive to the documentary.

The editing used is fairly simple, quick cuts are used in order to progress the documentary faster as well as to jump quickly into relevant pictures that would support the voice over. The cinematography in this documentary is mainly composed of medium shots during the interviews, and extreme close ups of eyes, or hands to highlight how much the players are focusing on their games and further elevate these games into sports rather than simply games. While medium-long shots are used when following people. These shots are often filmed without a stand or tripod to increase the realism and allow the audience to feel as if they are with the players.

Types of Documentaries

the Expository

the Observational

the Participatory

the Reflexive

the Poetic

the Performative

There are 6 main types of documentaries, each with their our conventions and styles. The main 6 are 

Expository Documentaries : These are documentaries which, as the name suggests, expose a topic or person. A convention of these types of documentaries is having a commentator who would speak over a series of pictures or clips and explain them directly to the audience. One of the ways this commentator would directly address the audience is by using rhetorical questions. These normally appeal to audiences by containing exclusive images or interviews, and by covering a topic that most people find quite interesting.

Observational Documentaries : These are documentaries in which the audience would follow a person or animal around and observe them naturally. In these documentaries the audience normally has no impact on the events. A popular documentary with strong observational aspects would be planet earth if it did not contain the commentating.

   

Participatory Documentaries : Participatory documentaries are documentaries in which the creators of the documentary do impact the events, and are usually the ones asking questions and conducting interviews, though their dialogue is normally cut out and the person interviewed would include the question in their answer to make up for the section that has been cut. A popular documentary in this type is 'Free to play'. 

Reflexive Documentaries : Here the creator is able to narrate and even show themselves in front of the camera. Most of these documentaries can revolve around the creation of that documentary and the journey to create it. These documentaries are seen as more personal as the filmmaker is usually accompanied by minimal crew, which brings the audience closer to them. These documentaries also focus on truthfulness and realism, usually using minimal editing and no special effects. Although they are usually truthful, it is not to say that the content is non-biased, as they can be greatly altered based on the opinions of the filmmaker

Poetic Documentaries : This seems to be the most abstract form of documentary, where the usual conventions such as commentary and continuity are not followed. Instead shots are usually included randomly to encourage the audience to form their own opinions about the 'inner meaning' of the text, 

Performative Documentaries : The mode of documentary is very closely related to the participatory mode though the filmmaker is not usually as involved as in participatory documentaries. Performative documentaries also attempt to present truths from the filmmaker's perspective rather than absolute truths. 

Mind maps

Below are the mind maps me and my group have created to help us decide what topic we would choose. We have decided to focus on social problems that we may like to address and the cause of those problems.

After discussing the options of possible documentaries with my group we decided that we would all like to create a documentary on the social impacts of video games. We think that this would be an original idea. All group members also have a shared interest in this topic so this will help us work harder.

We then created another mind map to help us list out the social impacts of video games, and create the overall message and opinions we would like to project within our documentary. This mind map will also help us with minor decisions such as the title.

Introduction : Documentary

For my A2 Media coursework me and my group have decided to create a short documentary. The aim is to follow the conventions of documentaries; and attempting to follow the style in
the recent documentary "Indie Game : The movie. This directly relates to our idea of our documentary as we are planning to focus on Video Games, and the effect of Video Games.