Critical reflection essay

Rufus Taylor

Advanced Portfolio

Critical Reflections essay:

HOW DO YOUR PROUCTS REPRESENT SOCIAL FROUPS OR ISSUES?

American theorist Bill Nichol’s explored the 6 modes of documentary and how filmmakers use these genres to convey truth and insight, how the narrative can challenge assumptions and alter perceptions. The documentary is a medium used to represent people, social groups, values and issues. Events depicted in a documentary have been chosen or selected by the filmmaker based on how they want to represent a topic. This is referred to as ‘mediated’, what the filmmaker chooses to include or to leave out.

Through my documentary I wanted to explore the equestrian industry from a sports and commercial viewpoint.  Many popular documentaries focus on the racing industry, the American Mustang or wild herds from around the world.  The UK horse-riding industry is associated with a female demographic and as theorist Stuart Hall suggested, stereotypes often represent social groups. However, the converse is true in the US where ranching and cowboy stereotypes dominate. The ideology of the documentary was to highlight how much time, resources and dedication it takes to develop a sport horse, a horse bred to compete and the sports people involved. This is one of the few sports where men and women compete in the same classes and at elite level there are more male riders than female, yet the media mis-represent this group within the industry. There is another stereotype within the industry, representing a minority group of men, often leading many young riders to leave the industry because these characteristics are wrongly attributed to all young male riders.

I’ve used language to inform the narrative through questions requiring explanation of the type of education process involved for the horse and rider. It’s a partnership and both parties must understand the aids for successful communication. I've used music and editing to create an emotional connection to the imagery.

I’m hoping the audience will ‘read’ from the documentary that there is much more to both preparing the horse and rider from an athlete’s perspective and the high risks involved to achieving success. Success is not only the reward from a good performance but selling your skills to support your sport.

HOW DO YOUR PRODUCTS ENGAGE WITH THE AUDIENCE?

The audience I had in mind for my product focuses around the current demographic not necessarily the wider Audiences that I would like to reach. When I look at my peers in the industry, their ridden journey has been funded by their family so attracting interest from both older professionals and their younger offspring. The demographic would likely be female, mainstreamers, explorers and reformers. They would include ABE, with the E category only relevant from a student perspective. This audience would be engaged with my product because they have experienced the ridden journey and learnt the required skills and connect with product. The AB’s would be interested in my product as they have the vision for their children and may already be on that journey with them. They often have experience within the equestrian industry either from their own childhood or are personally involved.

The secondary audience would be the young men perhaps in pony club perhaps looking to further their riding experience and possibly a career either in an associated industry or into the elite pathway. Stuart Hall referred to this audience as one that’s able to decode the images or text and recognise a n alternative viewpoint. For my product, I’m hoping that the young men in the industry recognise that there is a place for them in the sports industry as an equestrian.

HOW DO THE ELEMENTS OF YOUR PRODUCTION WORK TOGETHER TO CREATE A SENSE OF BRANDING 

Using social media allows us to represent ourselves in a particular way. Often this is a construct carefully put together. My Instagram page uses a photograph of a horse, jumping a cross country course, it’s a dynamic shot which attracts both young male and female audiences. Creating branding across different media platforms involves convergence of traditional media and the digital platform. The magazine article not only uses colourful images of the horse and rider to tell a narrative but informed questions to enhance the film. The instagram page reinforces the brand through advertising the release date and distribution channel. 

The ideology behind the brand is one of how the equestrian world has been using stereotypes, such as female demographics to promote the industry, often isolating young male riders. David Gauntlett argued that this form reduces people into simple groups or characterisation, this is something I’ve seen first hand across a wide range of equestrian media. In addition I wanted to convey the commercial view of how much time and resource is involved and the contribution the equestrian industry makes to the UK economy. 

 

HOW DID YOUR RESEARCH INFORM YOUR PRODUCTS AND THE WAY THEY USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS?

For my documentary I researched how to apply the codes and conventions for the genre and which ones might be suitable for a performatory/participatory style. This involved learning the correct techniques needed to film an interview in a busy competition venue.  I watched A documentary Masterclass by Mark Bone, which explained the different approaches to interview styles. I chose Emma Rarity, a young freelance rider from the equine industry as my expert for the interview process. Emma has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry both from a rider perspective and in training and developing young horses.  

The conventions incorporated in my 5-minute clip included using a handheld camera which is used to show realism and truth, use of archive footage and photographs supporting the filmed scenes of the horse and rider and voice over narrative.  To capture and engage with the audience I used carefully constructed questions to help shape the narrative and used intercutting to connect the visual shots of Emma’s social media postings to her audio responses. This is crucial when Emma is discussing the scales of training to convey to the audience the horse and rider relationship and how it translates into movement. Mis-en-scene was particularly important during filming, even bringing my horse Heather into the camera shot to reinforce the talking head scene. 

Avoiding yes/no questions that generally end in small responses led to some of my questions needing to be rephrased for better responses.  This was harder than I imagined, I had to research the industry to understand current issues whilst trying to convey my point of view. Finally, post-production, I added music to connect the audience emotionally to my product.