Documentaries are used to inform, entertain and interest people about certain events/themes with some aspect of reality. It deals with real issues that are happening around the world, and real life people telling their stories on certain issues, making it easy for the audience to relate to the documentary as it gives the audience that sense of realism, by using 'real' people of the general public and also by using Vox Pops which are very common in documentaries and making it more entertaining. Documentarys use real life footage realting to the theme of the documentary, giving the audience a chance to realte to the scene as it maybe something they have been through before or wanted to no more about.
Throughout documentaries many things are commonly used in order to look professional and target the serious side. Archive footage is used a lot, this relates to the topic/ theme of the documentary but also shows other points of view so it gives more variety and makes it more entertaining and interesting-usually shown from clips of other programmes that are related.
Interviews are always used, using an expert which makes it look more professional they explain answers that people may want to no and are usually filmed in an office to look more sophisticated and relates to them as a person and also interviews with the general public are used possibly to explain the context of the subject.
Archive footage is mainly always used in order to relate to the theme and show a variety of aspects from different point of views.
The voice over is only heard but not seen, they often explain the visuals of what is happening on screen.
The mise en scene is always important and is a key element in documentaries, things such as clothes, props, backround, colours used allowe the documentary to unfold, small things such as an experts outfit or the proffesinals interview background are key elements into making a documentary proffesional-as you want to be sure their correct.
Documentarys tackle all sorts of issues around the globe, making them easy to relate to, there are also many different varies of type of documentary so that they appeal to all ages and sex's.
There are many things which make a documentary complete such as; events included must be un-staged and usually the theme is about a real life incident that has happened and real life activities and real life situations.
Documentaries are classified according to the techniques used in filming:
1. Raw footage
2. Expository
3. Observational
4. Interactive
5. Poetic - reflexive and performative
Genre Analysis (Documentary Analysis)
1) Title Of Programme: The Meth Epidemic
The Meth Epidemic documentary is an investigative and crime like type of documentary, with elements of both scientific and sociological contents within it also. In this documentary themes such as drugs, medicines, addiction, money, abuse, crime, government and other themes related to this subject are introduced and brought up throughout the documentary.
The story is presented in a linear narrative structure; this is because the documentary runs through the years in order of dates showing the impact Meth is having in America as time passes, so we see what happened when Meth was not being taken to when it caused chaos and deaths throughout America.
The camera work throughout the documentary is clean and well presented. It is obvious that the production of the documentary is produced on a large scale budget. This is shown through professional camerawork and how the production team had flown member of the crew to Mexico to film live footage of Meth being manufactured and also to interview people that are involved within the Meth industry, this gives the audience a clearer and broader understanding to what Meth actually is and what a huge impact it has on people. Hand held camera work is shown throughout the documentary to show footage of Meth being produced; this gives the audience a more of a sense of realism into what is actually happening. Frequent archive footage is shown a lot throughout making the audience get more of an understanding to the theme from different view points and makes it more interesting and entertaining, such as CCTV footage and police footage.
The voice over relates to the visual codes on screen throughout the documentary to support people talking about Meth. For instance when the women is explaining how Meth is destroying families lives, there is camera work of children who have been affected by parents addicted to Meth, this is very effective in the sense it makes people feel emotional, and the voice over’s voice sympathies with the visuals on screen making the audience sympathies too.
There is constant sound throughout the documentary which re-enforces the story for us. There is positive music when the subject is positive and sad music when people are talking about how they have lost there families through Meth abuse-they use a low beat that sounds like a heartbeat, this is used to show that when taking Meth your heart will beat slower so it has a big impact on the story.
Through editing everything is cut down to perfection. Transitions are used, for example fades are used to symbolise people’s lives- the women at the very end of the documentary who has 4 children that have been taken away from her due to Meth taking, is very emotional and explains how her life is fading away. This helps the viewers understanding of how Meth is affecting the environment socially and physically. Graphics are used to show titles and peoples names overlays are used through out the documentary to help reinforce the story.
2)Title Of Programme: Loose Change- September 9/11
Loose change is based around the attack of 9/11 and all the theories, reasons and what exactly happened and why it happened on that day, answering unanswered questions, and giving the audience and insight as to what happened that day, it has many themes around the story making it very interesting, such as; terrorism, planes, politics, the government, police and fire brigade, it shows us what happened during the attack of 9/11 and who they thought was behind the attack and why. It is told in a linear order, and is like a diary from the whole days of September and the aftermath in October/November. This gives us a extremely good knowledge as we no exactly what happened.
The documentary Lose Change is a documentary that really dives into the story about how and why 9/11 happened, it goes into extreme detail about every aspect of 9/11 and every possible reason for it. It looks into both sides of the story involving George Bush and his part in the attack and where he was when it happened and the terrorist Bin Laden, explaining his impact in the attack so we get many suspects for it. It also shows factual information and evidence that the twin towers couldn’t of fell down from just the planes impact, through out the documentary themes are raised such as: terrorism, scientific evidence, government, planes and money. Through out the documentary most of the camera work is taken from archive material such as phone footage, CCTV footage and news footage. This is the main camera footage throughout as it shows the same plane hit over and over but from different sides, above it, side of it and below it-gaining a true understanding as to what happened. Aerial shots are used to give us a clear view of 9/11 and its affects; we also see the use of handheld camera work-making it so interesting and factual.
During this documentary a music motive is used which links all the clips shown together it also helps set a mood and visual picture for the viewer. Quotes are used such as "so what are we going to do about it" which addresses the viewer directly which makes them more involved, as it gives them time to think and reflect about the visuals that have just been seen.
Many interviews were used which is very common of documentaries and made it more interesting and informative, with people who were there at the time and we got to hear their side to the crash and with families of loved ones who got killed in the accident, this was very emotional and sad, slow music was played in the background-this gives the audience a sense of realism and shows the dramatic and traumatic side to some peoples lives.
The Editing was cut down very well, not many editing techniques were used as a lot of the shots were of archive, however cut a ways were frequently added over the voice over and over clips of the twin towers falling, we are shown photo’s of possible culprits who did it and photo’s of people involved, which fits everything together and flows well. The voice over was a man, an American man-making him relate to the events in America’s society-he asks the audience many questions ‘why did this happen?’ ‘Who is…?’ making the audience think and join in with the documentary and have a view point into the sitchuation.
This was my favorite documentary as I thought, it was so interesting as it was such a huge event, and gave us lots of unanswered questions and we got to see exactly what happened through the choice of camera shots and peoples view points.
3)Title Of Programme: The Devil Made Me Do It
In the documentary ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ there is a strong theme of Satanism, murder and religion throughout the whole documentary, it all relates to religion and God and the death of an innocent Nun. The story looked into how music may influence teenagers into actions such as murder. In particular Marilyn Manson lyrics which are presented as having a massive impact on the listeners, which in this case is teenagers and are shown in a bad negative way, as having a big impact on teenagers making them become dangerous and bad. So at the very beginning we are introduced to this negative bad side and that Marylyn Manson is to blame for the death of a nun due to the fact that he does not believe in god, and we are introduced to a problem, that we no is going to be solved and looked into throughout the documentary so we are no immediately that it’s going to be about crime and death.
We are then informed more information about an unsolved brutal murder of a nun in a small religious village. The middle of the story shows identifies the killers who confess to the murder of the nun. The story does not end there but becomes more complicated because the blame is put on Marilyn Manson. Psychologists attempt to say that his music drove the 3 young girls to commit the murder but this is an opinion and not a fact or evidence. The documentary ends with the conclusion, so the audience no what has happened and isn’t left on a cliffhanger, that the three girls were sentenced and how long for and what each girl’s part was in the murder.
The camera angles used are of town has shots are also used to document Marilyn Manson's concerts, showing footage of people dressed in black and white, shouting, swearing and being violent showing and indicating all the negativity-portraying it badly and not a fun, enjoyable concert-interviewing people who are around at that time, saying how mad people were to go his concert and how stupid they are. There are vox pops outside the concert asking people their opinions of his concerts, getting everyone’s different views making it funnier and entertaining, and are very common with documentaries.
Marilyn Manson wore black and white very dark make up He wore many black different types of leather coats with laced details on them, all heavily embellished and has symbols of violence and death on them and symbols of hating and not believing in God or religion. He wore tops picturing many dark objects such as skulls and daggers. The psychologist wore a red suit emphasising her power. The whole mise en scene theme was of black and white representing negativity, contrast and danger-making it seem gory and negative connotations.
In the documentary non diagetic music was frequently used throughout. For example heartbeats were added over footage to add drama and suspense which also made it very exciting. Also the reconstruction of the death of the nun, it was all very black and mysterious making it more exciting and builds suspense, the silence when the phone rings makes it more dramatic and just a few seconds of sound makes a lot of difference.
4) The Elephant Man.
This documentary is very hard hitting and moving, it makes the audience feel very emotional as we feel sorry for and sympathise with 'the elephant man' showing bravery, love and pride as we see this man fight to get himself better by having a tuma which is life or death. It is a real life, true story documentry told by an interviewer finding out everything about how, why and who this man from china is.
It is told in a linear order, making it easy to understand and simple to follow, showing his life before, during and after an operation to remove a 18kg tuma across his head.
Throughout the documentary the camera angles varey, we start with long shots so the audience gets an insight into everything that is happening and we feel as if we are there, making the documentary more moving and emotional. The main camera angle used is close-ups this is to show 'the elephant man's' face and features so the audience can see what has happened to this man in detail, this makes the documentary very interesting and makes people aware of the problems that some people are facing. Before facing his operation we see high angle shots of this man, making him look fragile, vunrable and making the audience have emotions, relating to the programme feeling worried scared for him, during the operation the camera is shown with blured and mixed, quick paced camera shots making it tense and woundering whats going to happen next so that the audience will keep watching and not take their eyes of the screne. Then after the operation we suddenly start to see low angle shots making him look powerful and happy-giving the audience a sense of postivity with a nice, happy ending, however the ending as no real conclusion so the audience do not no what happened to him or what happens next.
There are not many graphics used throughout, as the narrater/interviewer man who has gone out to china does all the speaking and points out all the visual codes that we would want to no. The colours and effects used throughout are limited-the colours are dull and all of natural light which is a very common convention of documentarys, giving th audience a sense of realism.
The use of on diagetic sounds throughout are added for purposes and to causes dramtic effect, the music is slow, soft and gentle when we are first intorduced to the 'Elephant Man' this is added to create emotion and feelings towards him ,making th audience feel a connection with him, the music then during and after the operation picks up pace and gets a quicker, sharper beat making it more tense ad in some ways exciting.
5) Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs was a channel 3, 2-part documentary, of one of the biggest male prisons in England. It is told in linear order, from beginning- when people enter the prison, to the end, where the audience sees what happens to each member of the prison in the future. It is a very hard hitting, dramatic documentary, making the audience feel emotion and shock, the audience can feel this strong emotion by the fact that the camera’s are actually inside and close up in the prison, so we get an insight for the people staying there and the guards that work there.
The use of hand held footage is very useful and commonly used by the guards, this lets the audience gain full understanding to what is going on, it also makes it more interesting and tense, as its actually happening, and we are close up to the prisoners making people feel scared and anxious. The also use of CCTV footage, which shows all angles of the prison and its also in black and white, making it come across scary and is very representative of prisons as you associate black and white as danger, power and rebellious. The use of close up shots are used for power, and emotion especially in the scene when we see a prisoner slit his arm open, the prison bars get opened and there is a young, lonely man with blood leaking out of his arm, we see the close up of the arm and the drenched blood, this has such a big impact on the audience and is very realistic in the sense that it’s actually happening which makes you feel very emotional and sympathise with the young man.
The sounds used throughout is mainly diagetic sounds of people talking, and prisoners shouting, there is also many silences throughout as the camera pans across the prison, this silence gives the audience time to think and time to reflect on what has happened in the leading scenes making your emotions run high. The use of non-diagetic sounds is used a little bit, when we have an emotional scene, sad, slow music is played with little beats and a piano style sound, however when prisoners are being violent and shouting-loud upbeat music is played so that everything fits in place and it makes it more dramatic and exciting.
The colours and mise en scene throughout is all dull, blacks, whites, dark blues, no happiness or bright anything, representing the dull sad lives people face in a prison, the weather outside was always miserable and raining showing that’s how the people felt when they were their, it is very hard-hitting documentary, making you feel sorry for the people staying there and feel as if you can relate to them in some way.
6) My New brain
This was a channel 4 documentary about a teenage boy-Charlie, who had had a terrible accident falling off a wall onto a coble stone ground, which left him partly disabled and unaware of anything around him or any memories that he had. It is told in a linear order, it shows an inspirational journey for this young man from after he awoke after the accident in hospital to following through his rehab and trying to regain a normal lifestyle again and get his life back together. The documentary is extremely moving and fills you with emotion. It has a positive, happy ending showing Charlie at his 21st birthday with all his friends, family and people their to support him-and we can see how happy he is and how much he is trying to get better.
The camera angles used are mainly hand held, following Charlie around as he tries to get his life back together, the audience follow Charlie into where the accident happened, using hand held camera footage we feel as if we are Charlie and exactly what happened, this makes to sympathise with Charlie and feel very emotional and sad. The use of high angle camera shots make Charlie look very vulnerable, scared and alone, but we soon realise that this strong brave boy comes to terms with his damage and starts to sort himself out making him have power, the camera work soon changes and by the end of the documentary low angle camera work is used so that Charlie looks brave, a fighter and strong.
There are a lot of non-diagetic sounds used throughout, the music is all the same but uses different beats and sounds to show different emotion, when Charlie first was seen on camera, quirky, sad, slow music was used, then by the end of the documentary slow music was also used to make you feel proud and sad for Charlie has he is fighting to get his life back to normal.
Like many documentaries lots of interviews are used, interviews with the doctors showing the interviews with a professional making it more serious and showing the importance of his illness, we also have interviews with his family members and friends, these are used to show lots of emotion and see what each persons views are of the sitchuation.
1) Comparisons of two class documentries.
In media we have watched, analysed and made notes on many different types and themes of documentaries. I will be focusing on two of my favourite documentaries watched, the first one is Loose Change and secondly we watched The Devil told me to do it, both are real life investigation documentaries about different situations and stories around the world.
Loose change is based around the attack of 9/11 and all the theories, reasons and what exactly happened and why it happened on that day, answering unanswered questions, and giving the audience and insight as to what happened that day, it has many themes around the story making it very interesting, such as; terrorism, planes, politics, the government, police and fire brigade, it shows us what happened during the attack of 9/11 and who they thought was behind the attack and why. In contrast to that, The Devil told me to do it is based around crime, thrillers and an investigation, discussing if Marilyn Manson was behind an attack and murder of an innocent nun. This has a wider themes based on crime, murder, death, danger, violence, police, and culture, showing us the story about two girls killing a nun, and asking the question of who was behind the attack, making the audience think.
The narrative structure in both is linear and is told in a simple order, following a straight structure, with a beginning, middle and ending. Making it easy to understand and following it so it makes sense. In loose change, it shows us days before the attack, the day of the attack, and then the left over’s and what happened afterwards- resulting in a conclusion. However the devil told me to do it, the documentary opens telling us about religion and about Marilyn Manson, then following that it shows us the murder of a nun by two girls, resulting in many different arguments as to who is behind the murder and why. It ends by telling us the sentence that the girls got and why, however it has an unknown ending and fades out meaning the answer is up to you to think and decide about.
Both documentaries shown have many types of archive footage, so we no where the event took place, and how other people have seen it. However many of there own camera-work was used in specific and meaningful ways.
In The Devil told me to do It the archive footage is mainly on crosses to add emphasis and show meaning, the camera shots used are of Marilyn Manson showing high angle shots when he looks vulnerable and powerless, and when he has been accused off dangerous things, like sexual attacks or murder. However they show low angle shots of times when he is performing showing how powerful he can be and the impact he has on his fans. There are many point of view shots used, off fans from his show, off people in the streets, the police showing things from there eyes and giving us an insight into how they feel. However the camera angles used in loose change are point of view shots from people all around New York showing us the different angles and the chaos caused in the attack from different people’s point of views.
2) Comparison of two home studyed documentaries
I have watched and analysed two different documentaries; One is called ‘wormwood scrubs’ a documentary filmed over a period of time about a male prison in London, and secondly ‘my brain’ about a young boy who has had a terrible brain accent which has left him disabled and un-a-were off who he really is and what he used to be like.
The first documentary I watched was called wormwood scrubs, showing the reality of a prison life a series on channel 3 – a hard-hitting, reality documentary which goes behind unseen footage of one of the UK's largest prisons, showing graphic footage of violence, self-harm and the aftermath of a suicide. It was filmed and set in London’s top prison, by using CCTV footage, hand held camera by the prison guards and a general camera that has been placed inside the prison so the audience can gain a full insight as to what happens.
The documentary is told in a simple, linear order with a beginning, middle and end with all the stories linking together as one, and an ending to let the audience no what has happened to each individual prisoner.
As the documentary opens we are introduced to the main characters that we will be seeing throughout the documentary.
In the opening scenes it shows a brutal attack on one prisoner by another it is shown on CCTV footage this makes it more intense, exciting and emotional. Most of the camera work used is CCTV footage maing is seem more realisitc, powerful and emotical. The music used throughout is mainly diagetic sounds of people talking however In one powerful scene, a young prisoner with a history of self-harm is seen with blood pouring from his slashed arm. We see a close up shot of his arm, showing the horrific impact of a prison life and making the audience feel emotinal, There is a sad moment when the prison chaplain cleans up a cell following the suicide of a prisoner, The diagetic sounds of people talking are all we here, and this powerful statement of the suicide "Two bin bags, that's all," leaves the audience in utter shock and leaves us with an emotical twist showing us the dangers of a prison and how tough it must be working there. Non-daigetic sounds are used throughout, slow music is used to add emotion and to make you feel thoughtful, loud, fast upbeat music is used when characters are getting violent and loud this creates tention and builds a lot of suspence throughout.
However in my second documentry ‘my brain’ it is all about a young boy who had a drunken night with his mates and fell of a wall, damaging his head, as he was close to death, who now has forgoten a lot of things and is trying to rebuild his life back together.
Similarly to Wormwood scrubs it is told in a linear order, we see the boy ‘Charlie’ as he wakes up from his accent in hosiptal, then during his recovery, then afew years later after he has recovered and is trying to get his life together.
Very common of documentries, a lot of interviews are used from famous doctors and physcologists, his family members giving the audience a insight directly into what has happened from all points of view.
Many camera angles are used, a lot of hand held shots, giving the audience an insight to his life and how he in coping, this increases the emotion of the audience as we empathise and sypathisse with Charlie and his family. We see high angle shots of charlie when he has first come out of hosiptal showing us how vunrable, ill and powerless he is, however near the end of the documentry it has switched and we see high angle shots showing us how poweful he has become and how he has changed and worked hard enough to make himself better.
Non-diagetic sounds are used near the end of the documentry to make the audience feel sad and emotinal as we see charlie speak to his friends and family about his illness and brain, which makes the audience simpathisise with him.
