Documentary Research

During this project we watched many documentaries to help us get ideas for our documentaries. Here is some information and analysis on some of the documentaries we watched:

The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence:

'The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence' was a documentary broadcasted on BBC1, this documentary was all about the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the boys who did it. This documentary also shows corruption and racism in the police.

Stephen Lawrence was a Black British teenager from Eltham, South East London, who was murdered in a racist attack while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993. Witnesses said he was attacked by a gang of white youths chanting racist slogans.

These are the key 11 points that the documentary showed:

• It was a chance fo the police to confront racism.
• Not enough evidence for the police to arrest the supsects.
• Surveillance footage was used to watch the suspetcs (secretive filming).
• Interview with Duwayne Brooks who was Stephen Lawrence's best friend and was there at the time of the attack. He explains what happend at the time and says the attack was racially motivated.
• Evidence was missed- bin bag found with evidence linking to the murder.
• Photographs found of weapons such as knives found which could have been used to murder.
• No arrests for 13 days.
• Goes to the suspects house no answer.
• Recorded interview by the police.
• John Davidson- suspicision of him being corrupt in the police. Possiblity that he accepted £500 to be quite about the evidence during the police investigation (Hush money).
• Interview with a victim.

Educating Essex:

Educating Essex is a fly on the wall documentary as it records teachers and pupils in a natural environment over a period of time. The documentary focuses on Passmores Academy secondary school in Harlow, Essex. The show follows a group of GCSE students and there teachers, during the crucial year of there education. The school was fitted with 65 fixed cameras, from the corridors to the canteen, and from the headteacher's office to the detention hall. Recording with the fixed cameras lasted for seven weeks which was then edited down into a seven part series.


We only had the opportunity to watch the first episode of the series in college and here is some information about the documentary:

Episode one starts off with a establishing shot and it allows the viewers to see the setting of the documentary and in the background you can here the sound of the school bell which I believe was a good feature of the documentary because it signals the start of a new school day and at the same time the start of the documentary series.

Then it jumps to a mid shot which is used to show a teacher telling off students regarding their uniform, as he is the first member of staff we see it conveys to the audience that this could be a main important character within the documentary, the teacher shown in the first scene is a main character in the episode and the camera follows him around through most of his day.

A narrator is also present throughout the documentary when necessary, to talk the viewers through was it going on. The narrator is present through the use of a voiceover which is a common feature of a documentary. Later on a brief long shot of the school field is used to display to the audience the setting again before a jump cut to a student and teacher, it is very fast paced at the beginning allowing the audience to see more in a short space of time.


Through the summary I have written above you can see that the documentary contains a wide range of different camera angles which is gives the viewers a different perspective of what is happening each time this also conveys with the common features of a documentary. Also most of the editing done in this documentary is very basic which gives the viewers a feeling of realism in order to make the viewers see that the footage is real rather than actually being acted out. Overall, I believe this documentary does exactly what it is trying to achieve as it gives of feeling of realism to the viewers and shows them what it is like to try to teach in a modern secondary school, it also conforms with the common features of a documentary.


 9/11The Lost Tapes:

9/11 The Lost Tapes is an expository documentary that reveals which informs British audiences about what actuallly happend on that fatal day. It revealed to the auidence newly released audio recordings which offer a unique insight and moving perspective on 9/11 and the fateful minutes that changed America forever.

On the morning of the attacks, hundreds of hours of military and air traffic control conversations were captured on tape painting a chilling and tragic picture of events spiralling inexorably out of control. With events unfolding at breakneck-speed, the tapes reveal in minute-by-minute detail, the chaos and confusion wrought by the attacks.
Revelations include how Air Force fighter jets, scrambled to protect Washington, set out in the wrong direction - ending up 60 miles out across the Atlantic ocean and that permission to shoot down hijacked passenger planes only came through after the last plane crashed.

The documentary begins with an establishing shot of the twin towers before the tragic incident, this then cuts to a extreme long shot of New York including a flying plane, a voice over is also present to introduce it. Straight after the start of the documentary it shows the viewers archive footage of real recordings of the twin towers burning and the plane crash. Then the audience can hear a non diagetic sound of panicked people talking and then the camera jumps from different shots of people on phones, large satellite dishes etc.

Later on reconstructed footage of services answering phones is shown along with the non digetic sound of scared people again. After this there is a close up of a man which shows his raw emotions, during this scene powerful music is played when the shot changes to the twin towers falling the the ground this music fades out. I believe they did this to put an emphasis on relaism and to try and make the viewers feel what it would be like to be there on that day.

The rest of the documentary conists of interviews with people who were there on that day and footage of the aftermath of the towers collapse. In my opinion this is a very powerful documentary which does exactly what a documentary like this should do, it is informative and gives a feeling of shock and anguish off to the viewers and ends with a feeling of sadism. This documentary conforms with the common features of a documentary as it has a number of different camera angles, voiceovers, interviews and archove footage.

Cloverfield:

Cloverfield is a documentary film set in Central Park, New York.It is a fiction film based on an attack on New York City by a creature that the audience never actually get to see until the last scene. The film is presented as found footage from a personal video camera recovered by the United States Department Of Defense. A disclaimer text states that the footage is of a case designated "Cloverfield" and was found in the area "formerly known as Central Park". The video consists chiefly of segments taped the night of Friday, May 22 and the morning of Saturday, May 23, 2009. The newer segments were taped over older video that is visible occasionally. 

 

The whole film is filmed on a video camera and it gives of very realistic feel because the camera work i jerky and some clips are slightly un-focused, this is a common feature of documentaries like this.

The film starts with one of the characters using his video camera to film his friends leaving a party. As he is leaving he gets people to say thier goodbyes over the camera, however people are being slightly camera shy and not giving a big goodbye message which also gives off a sense of realism as in real life many people are camera shy and un photogenic. A few minutes later on into the film someone turns on the news on the TV and see that New York is under attack which causes moral panic throughout the group which causes people to leav the party rather quick in fear of being attack because the creature is getting closer to where they are located. Whilst they are running out the building the camera is still on and the camera gets really shaky to put an emphasis on the fact that they are running fast and the video camera doesnt matter because they are scared. Once they got out onto the street they quickly had to run out into a shop and then lcoked the doors behind them as the creature is very near. During this scene the camera is put down onto the floor and when the lights go out you the screen goes black and all you can hear is the background noise. This creates a sense of realism because you can tell that they are no longer bothered about filming and just want to look after themselves, from this scene you can tell that they are becoming increasingly scared.
Overall this documentary has many common features that you would see in a documentary e.g the camera work because it is really shaky it gives a realistic feel which this type of documentary is all about.