The Documentary Plan

Voice / Text	Visuals
·         Brief history narration	·         Shots of old consoles (found and original) ·         Game covers ·         Game magazine pages (adverts)
·         First interview – game shop owner ·         Games are becoming more violent and graphic ·         Game shop owner playing a violent game	·         Shots of exterior and interior of game shop ·         Shots of owner
·         Interview kids (8TA) about the games that they play ·         They like playing violent games	·         Kids / teenagers playing computer games ·         Screenshots of a game being played
·         Voiceover linking violence with gaming	·         Shots of newspaper reports in which violence is blamed on computer games
·         Parent interview ·         They worry about the amount of time that their child plays	·         Establishing shot of house
·         Return to game shop owner saying that games are NOT responsible for violence and reasons why ·         Suggestions for how kids need to be more responsible	·         Shots of exterior and interior of game shop ·         Shots of owner
·         Return to 8TA kids – do they agree that they should play games more responsibly	·         Kids / teenagers playing computer games ·         Screenshots of a game being played

Laura Mulvey Research

Q1) Research Laura Mulvey

Qa) Who is she?

Aa) A British feminist film theorist, she became well known for her essay on “visual pleasure and narrative cinema”.

Qb) What is her field of specialisation?

Ab) Her speciality is in film and media studies, but mainly her theory of the male gaze.

Q2) What is the theory of the male gaze?

A2) She believes that Hollywood characters in the 1950’s and 60’s weren’t casted for their looks but their talent, but she believes today is different, that women are given roles in film more for looks and beauty than actual acting ability.

Q3) Why is this important in media studies?

It gives another viewpoint to look at my text in, for example how female gamers are looked upon by other gamers.

Texual Analysis of ancillary tasks

The conventions of games arent very clear, many appear to change in part with the genre. a number of todays games dont need the conventional controller or keypad to play anymore.
what does appear to matter is if they appeal to the people who either enjoy that genre of gaming or characters taken from it.
like sport games, people like fifa games for the gameplay itself, while others would like WWE video games for the people you play as.  

A large part also goes to the genre of the game, First Person Shooter (FPS), Role Playing Game (RPG), Fighting Games, Survival Horror Games people would be intrested in the game if its the kind they like (and all gamers tastes seem to be diffrent).

There may well be one more reason games make money and that may be the controversy a game causes. modern warfare 2 had a scene in the game where your a undercover agent shooting citizens in an airport with a terroist group, this part of the game caused the maedia to give thier viewpoint, which gave the game a lot of press, which in turn causes interest in people which will enevitably increase sales of the game (Note: there was the option in the game to skip this part interially). 

                                                                                                                                                          

The Codes and Conventions of a Documentary

What makes a Documentary a Documentary?

1. Voiceovers – they are informative asking questions to the audience and making them think, also it sets things up to the next question.
2. ‘Real’ footage of events – this makes the documentary more professional and provides a visual aid for the audience.
3. Technicality of Realism – including natural lighting and sound.
4. Archive footage/stills – to aid in the authenticity of the documentary, such as footage of when the subject of the documentary began.
5. Interviews – interviews with experts about the documentaries subject give more professional insight, while interviews with general members of the public offer a whole other point of view.
6. Use of text – should only be used in title, credits and the assisted introduction of someone in an interview.
7. Sound – Music in documentaries is normally used as a bridge to another section, like supersize me the childish music reflects on McDonalds badly.
8. Set-up – used a lot in documentaries that involve a sort of crime element to it, it is another visual aid for the audience.
9. Visual coding – using props and clothing to make someone look more authentic

Game Documentary Plan (Simple)

• Start with introduction
• Small history on games
• Introduce main topic “Controversy of video games”
• Examples of game violence
• Interview with shop owner, his stance
• Interview with kids, their stance
• Interview with parents and teachers, their stance
• (Also have game footage and shots of kids playing games).

Deaths blamed on video games

As I started off finding out what to base my video game documentary on I discovered the amount of controversy based around games through violence, neglect and actual death from playing games here are a few examples I have discovered:

• “A three-month-old South Korean girl starved to death after her parents repeatedly left her alone for 12-hour stretches to raise and nurture a virtual child at an online cafe; the autopsy revealed the baby died of prolonged malnutrition”.  (www.realtruth.org/news/100310-002-society.html)
• “Chris Staniforth, 20, played his Xbox 360 console up to 12 hours and died in May from deep vein thrombosis (DVT). His father is now campaigning to have the public become more aware of taking breaks from playing games”. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020462/Xbox-addict-20-killed-blood-clot-12-hour-gaming-sessions.html)
• “A 17-year-old British boy has murdered a 14-year-old, by copying the game Manhunt, the boy has pleaded guilty to the crime, the two boys were reportedly friends, the headline from the daily mail was ‘Murder by Playstation’” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3935253.stm)
• A boy along with six of his friends has died after getting the new expansion for world of warcraft and dieing after a 24 hour gaming session, due to a lack of sleep or food. the parents said the kids ate very little and thier son had only two hours sleep the previous night.(http://www.tomsguide.com/us/world-warcraft-sweden-lich-king,news-2974.html)

From doing this I have found out three different way people have died and video games have been blamed for whether that be parents neglect, over playing video games or murder inspired from violent video games.