How does your product represent social groups or issues?
An issue we decided to pick out from society are involuntary celibates. An issue now deeply connected with internet culture. We created a character named Steven who possesses the typical traits of an incel (mostly being terminally online) and we decided to exaggerate it to the extremes. We subverted typical representations of incels by making Steven a more aggressive character who has lost the humanity in him. We also made the decision to represent incel behaviour as a symptom of a disease. Unlike typical representations which argue that incel behaviour is self-induced. Instead we chose to represent them as more victims. Our media agenda is to raise awareness for incels and to show that they are not at fault for their own situation.
Steven’s character is shown to have developed extreme aggressive and antisocial behaviour. This is a satire of incel behaviour that we decided to use for comedy points. A preferred reading (Reception Theory - Stuart Hall) in this case would be a simple comedic interpretation, the Bufo Ferulabitus he caught is an extreme case. An oppositional reading to this is a full on mockery on incels. We do not intend the mockery to be solely for comedic value but to also represent them as victims
Another social group we represent are mothers of victims. Mothers of victims are usually represented as emotional, caring much for their lost ones. However, we chose to subvert it for comedy points. Instead of Ms. Harvard Cambridge crying over her child she instead celebrates her loss. We chose to parody Cambridge in her name because we are a mockumentary. It is part of genre conventions to parody or satire.
How does your product engage with the audience?
Our product engages with the audience through the thumbnail. Our thumbnail is used to attract audiences by summing up the content of our documentary into one single image. We use this tool to appeal to their demographic and psychographics.
The content of our documentary also appears to their demographics and psychographics. We used actors who were of an age range of our target audiences. Because of this we hope that our product will be more attractive to them. We also utilise Uses and Gratification theory by Bulmer and Katz. Our documentary serves as a form of diversion for our audience from reality. We also intend for our product to be used by our audience to form social relations.
Our product will also cause our audience to be desensitised (compassion fatigue theory) to violence. There are scenes where Steven attacks the narrator and the cameraman, this may cause the audience to feel as though this is normalised for mentally ill people.
How did your product research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
Manndemic is a mockumentary. We looked into other mockumentaries such as Borat or American Vandal. Through that we decided to use conventions of normal documentaries. The graphics, the tone of the narrator and the way the camera was used fit the standard conventions commonly seen in documentaries. We decided to keep the camera work professional and remove some dialogue deemed “too unprofessional” such as Damarius saying “Hey let’s get it!” as it would more resemble a Youtube video rather than a proper documentary which would go against our aims. We took the handheld style of the camera from Borat in order to give it a more improv or real-time feel to make it feel more genuine for our audience. We also had our narrator talk to the camera directly which is uncommon for many health/medicine documentaries. We decided to do this to show the audience that it was more of a self-produced product. This was done to go against common narratives that documentaries are professional and high-budget
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