Genre analysis

In every documentary everything is always checked and planned to reflect the documentary and to attract the target audience.

First documentary
The twins who share a brain
Type of documentary
This document is narrated with interviews. The narration is an offscreen voice over and gives the real facts about what the documentary is about, the story behind and what's currently going on at the time throughout the 48 minutes.
Themes
The theme of the documentary is showing the medical illnesses and conditions that are going on all over the world.
Narrative structure
The narrative structure shows both linear and non linear because the documentary is showing the twins from birth to their life now. It is the whole story. It shows it throughout their life. Their is also non linear as the documentary will flash backwards to other events that arent meant at that time.
Camerawork
There are alot of different camera angles and shots. They have long shots of how the mother and father are getting along so that they can have their privacy with no camera in their face but so there relationship can be seen. They have close up shots of the children playing so you can see in detail what and how they to do stuff. They have an extreme close up of the babys face to show their happiness. These camera shots are there so that the audience can feel what they do and they get to see exactly whats happening in full detail throughout the whole story. They have a long shot of them in their car driving down the road to show that they are moving on to another place. The interviews shown in the documentary are in middle shot so that they can get the whole interviewee in the camera.
Mise-en-scene
This documentary at the beginning shows the place of where in Canada they live so that the audience can know what environment they are living in. It shows the mountains and roads of Western Canada to show you what its like around there. At the beginning the narrator mentions that it is a little town to show that many people will know about the twins. They show scenes of the hospital to show where the twins had been born so that they can get a sense of being there and how everyone coped. Its to give the audience more sense of actually feeling like they know whats happening. It shows the house of where they live to show how the children do stuff at home and how they live.
Sound
The twins who share a brain has non diagetic and diagetic sound. Non diagetic sound is the hospital music at the beginning and throughout to show that its a medical based documentary. When the hospital music is fast it means that something could go wrong and when its slow it means that something good is about to happen. Whilst the twins are in surgery to feel better and get their heart improved the radio is playing over it as a cutaway. The radio is talking about the babies and what is happening to them as the shot is of them getting the surgery. There is also diagetic music which is the ambulance sirons whilst they are filming the street. It gives a sense of the twins environment is like and what the documentary is about. When the twins are being born in the hospital they have the sound of all the equipment going on to show whats happening.
Editing
They go from images of the twins to an animated image of them to zooming into their head to see how they share a brain and the different things going on in their head. The interview will take place then they will have a cutaway then back to the interview then footage. They have a view of Canada as what it looks like in the day and then will go in fast mode till it reaches night time and then carrys on untill it gets to day time again. This shows that it is the next day.
Archive material
They show actual footage of the other conjoined twins names the Shapelle twins and also there are 3D images of inside the childrens head showing the audience how they share a brain and all the different things that are going on through their head like how they share sight. They also show this as still moving images. They're are cutaways of the brain inside their house and showing the images of the Shapelle twins.
Graphics
The documentary has on screen text. They showed scenes of canada and then had the name of the place on screen to show the setting of where they are living. They also show whose being interviewed with the name of the interviewee and who they are or what their job is. At the end of the documentary they have credits that scroll down the screen which also shows "with special thanks too the Hogan family"

These are the twins that share the brain. Tatiana and Krista Hogan.

This is the link to watch the documentary: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bodyshock/4od#3080381

Second documentary

The devil made me do it
Type of documentary

Fully narrated

Themes

• Death because of the nun
• Manson anti-establishment
• Religion
• Good vs Evil - Jesus is framed! (iconography)
• Kids vs parents (generation gap)
• Influence of media on youth (music)

Narrative structure

• Explains what has happened and the story in full details
• When theres a language that they didn't know they was a translator in english
• Non linear
• Single strand

Camerawork

They have point of view shots as if they were holding the camera. They use it at the time when the nun dies. They have got long shots of the scenery such as the dark street so that they can make it look bigger and give the audience the sense of pysco giving an impression of power and so they can see everything. They also try showing power through naturalistic lighting. They have a side on, close up of the loyer with a shadow. They also use a shadow on Marilyn Manson to try and give the impression that he is evil. An extreme close up is used on the teenagers at the concert to show their agression and how they feel. There is a camera outside the voyer which is watching and observing. The camerawork in the interviews are conventional and the interviewees are either on the left or the right. They have low angle shots which show Marilyn has power and also medium close ups.

Mise-en-scene

The opening sequence features scenes of the town in daylight so they can get a sense of what it is like. They give shots and scenery of where they live so that they can give a view of the background. Its also trying to give the audience the chance to see if the environment they are living in could be blamed. They film the dark street so that they can show where the death happened.

Sound

They have diagetic sound and non diagetic sound. Non diagetic sound is like the translator's voice as the person that is speaking a different language is there but the translator is not and is recorded through editing over the interviewee's voice. They have gentle music whilst the people are talking to give a sense of what the documentary is about. They also have scary, choir music and oprah singing to show the religious side of the documentary. When it gets to upbeat moments such as finding out things the sound of a heartbeat will go on in the background to get the sense somethings going to happen. There is a male voiceover who speaks more than the one language. There isnt much diagetic sound except from the people speaking in the interviews and the cut aways of the court and meetings.

Editing

They have a young translator so that they can get through to the young viewers. There is juxtoposition of shots and cutaways. They have got quick cuts and elliptical editing as they show the scenes fade to black. Slow motion is also used to give more effect.

Archive material

They have cutaways of music videos to show why they blame Marilyn and to give more sense of what he does. They have a reannactment of a nun walking down the corridor. Its euthentic without a translator becaiuse its showing the truth. There are shots of the teenagers going crazy and singing to Marilyns lyrics which is showing the effect that the singer actually has on the teenagers. They have graphics on the screen and viewings of the concerts. There are talk shows on American radio.

Graphics

They have subtitles of Marilyn Manson's lyrics so that they can show the audience the violence of the lyrics. They also have subtitles of the translations. The subtitles are allinged, white, left, San Sereq writing and on the bottom. The dates and place is also put at the bottom. They also have credits at the end of the documentary.

Third documentary

The marketing of Meatloaf

Type of documentary

Mixed

Themes

• Music business/industry
• Construction of images
• Manipulation of audience
• Marketing

Narrative structure

• Non linear
• Circular
• Closed narrative structure
• Single strand

Camerawork

They do a low angle shot at the music premiere (Brits award 1994). There are point of view shots as the camera goes round the award meeting looking at everything and also at the bookies. The interviews are a medium close up of the interviewee which is at a angle that the interviewee is not looking at the camera. The close ups are conventional and they are either sat on the left or the right of the screen. There are long shots where they will zoom in and quite a few fly on the wall’s to give an insight of as if we were actually there. A handheld camera is used in the awards as if someone has taken it whilst watching them. The camera uses panning and zooming too.

Mise-en-scene

The Brit awards show that it is a music documentary. They have got images of Meatloaf in the background of the interviews. There are different, still images. Some are cardboard and some are used through the chroma key (the green screen). The music studio is used for the interviews. They also show the place where the music video was made.

Sound

The documentary has a male narrator that speaks in Standard English, is sarcastic and is Jorgen opinionated. There is scary music which is kind of rock and roll and fantasy like dragons. Meatloaf’s soundtrack is on in the background whilst the narrator is talking. You can hear the phone ringing in the office. When they are talking about the charts they have the YMCA song playing as it was number one. There is tense music, and Christmas songs to show what month it is.

Editing

• The man just appearing in the studio and then disappearing (dissolving)
• Text moving on screen whilst image is back
• Images moving
• Flickers to another scene
• Questions took out so the answers are clear and full sentences (conventional)
• Show cuts
• Fast motion
• Slow motion

Archive material

• Award ceremonies
• Old videos such as top of the pops
• All different newspapers and magazines about Meatloaf Music videos
• YMCA

Cutaways

• Meatloaf singing (silent and non silent clips)
• Old film clips (slow motion)
• Logos and magazine articles
• Old TV shows

Graphics

• Onscreen text
• Interviewees name and who they are
• logo
• status
• time/location
• the title is scrolled across the screen which is unconventional.

Media/music industry: show how to get the audience into and getting them involved/their opinion.

Forth documentary

Lara Croft

Type of documentary

Mixed

Themes

• Sexuality
• Technology
• Stereotyping of women
• Feminism
• Gender
• Female empowerment

Narrative structure

• Non linear
• Influence
• Closed narrative structure
• Single strand

Camerawork

They do a handheld shot when they are watching the people play the computer game. It is also an over the shoulder shot which is a shot from behind. When they were doing the interviews the interviewees were sat either on the left or the right with a headshot meaning that the camera was a medium close up and they also used a close up. In some parts of the documentary they used a canted frame which simply means that the camera was on a slant. In the cybercafé they used point of view shots of people playing the game on the computer from a side view which the camera zoomed in and was also tracked.

Mise-en-scene

They used chromakey in this documentary. It was for the backdrop in the interviews and was linked to what was on screen and what was being spoken about. They sometimes put the chromakey out of focus. They used low key lighting and the Lara Croft game that was being played on the chromakey was lighting up the interviewees face. They had a grainy effect like when there was a man talking in a box.

Sound

The game sound was used in the background. It was soft and not too loud. This attracted the target audience. Lara Croft had a young, male and female narrator who spoke Standard English so that they could reach the target audience. They have sound effects e.g the gun shot. Madonna’s song ray of light was being played in the background at one time with the lyrics. This is because Madonna is a powerful, female icon which is what they are trying to get across about Lara. They also played upbeat, dance music without lyrics.

Editing

• Fast motion
• Cuts
• Sounds layered
• Faces illuminated by screen
• Super imposed face onto a computer screen

Archive material

Cutaways

• Lara Croft game
• The film clips
• Website
• Advert for Nike
• Interview with Angelina Jolie (actor)
• People playing the game
• Extracts of magazines

Graphics

• Name of interviewee is on the bottom right
• Name of company is also on the bottom right
• The text is in lower case
• They have credits at the end which roll and are in speech bubbles

Fifth documentary

8 boys and wanting a girl

Type of documentary

This document is a mixed one.

Themes

• Feminism
• Health
• Gender

Narrative structure

The narrative structure is non linear because the documentary isnt in any order. It is also a closed documentary because it doesnt leave the audience to make a decision as it tells you what happened to each family.

Camerawork

In the interviews the interviewee's face is aimed at the camera but their eyes are looking somewhere else. They are sat on the left or right of the screen and it is a close up shot. The camera zooms in and out on certain parts of the documentary. They use a hand held camera too. When they are in the hospital they film the corridor using a long shot. There is an extreme close up of the parents faces in the car.

Mise-en-scene

They start the documentary in the hospital doing a baby scan which shows its got something to do with children. There are scenes in the toy shop where they will look down the girls aisle showing that they want a girl then move on to the boys aisle where the children start playing with everything. There are scenes and roads of the country to show the environment. They film alot of the interviews in girl bedroom's to show what the show is about.

Sound

There is non diagetic sound like the music in the background which is like a soft, oprah sound whilst people are talking as it shows some effect. There are hospital sounds in the hospital that are added in for an effect. There is a woman narrator that sounds like an adult's voice who speaks standard english.

Editing

• Slow motion
• Blurred shot of medication and the doctor
• Questions edited out/answers clear
• Freeze on image of man and woman hugging
• Go from one family to another family with a black out
  

Archive material

• There is footage of video games being played by the boys which shows what boys are like
• An american website on the things you can do to have a girl
• The baby scan
• Pictures of the families in the front room
• Cut

Graphics

The documentary has on screen text. They showed scenes of canada and then had the name of the place on screen to show the setting of where they are living. They also show whose being interviewed with the name of the interviewee and who they are or what their job is. At the end of the documentary they have credits that scroll down the screen which also shows "with special thanks too the Hogan family"

You can find this documentary through this link:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/8-boys-and-wanting-a-girl/4od#3052276

Brief!

For my media A2 coursework me and my group will be creating a documentary on a certain topic which will only show the opening 5 minutes includind titles. We will have to plan the whole 30 minute documentary even though it is not to be filmed. We are to include interviews which cannot be fake so in other words they must be original and authentic without scripts or pretending to be someone else.

My group
Nikki McCrory (me)
Katie Webb
Kate Shipway

Codes and convections of filming and editing interviews

Me and my class watched two documentaries on tv programmes and films. The first documentary was Jaws and the second one was The Simpsons. They were all about the films and tv programs and how and why they did certain things. It is also giving the audience a view of what each one is about. I wrote down all the details of what each documentary has in common.

Jaws
o The people in the documentary are always placed to one side of the screen
o Whatever the people are talking about in the scenes it will do a cut away shot to what they are talking about to show more understanding
o The names of the interviewees and film roles are underneath the people on a bar
o The interviewees are not looking at the audience and you can tell they are looking at the camera
o Each interview has the same backdrop which is something to do with the film
o The interviewees are smartly dressed
o The background is something to do with the film and is the beach
o They show shots of the film

The documentary of Jaws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Zj8R0kumw

The Simpsons
o The simpsons cut outs are in the background
o The clips are from the tv programme
o They hide all the light in the background with the blinds so the camera cant see any light source
o The interviewees dont look at the camera
o They interview people on the streets

The documentary of The Simpsons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orLGl7c5oHc

Of all documentaries
o The cameras film the interviewees in medium shot, medium close up or close up
o The questions that the interviewer asks are edited out so they cannot be heard or seen
o The interviewee must then answer the questions with the question involved and in full sentences
o There is never light in the background because the sun would blind the camera
o The interviewee is framed to the left or the right of the screen and if there is more than one person than there are positioning alternatives so it can create more variety
o The framing follows the rules of thirds-eyeline which is roughly a third of the way down the frame
o The interviewer or camera will have to be positioned on the opposite side of the interviewee
o The mise-en-scene is to do with the documentary or what the interviewer is talking about
o The graphics are used to anchor the person on screen and their relevance to the topic of the documentary
o Cutaways are edited into the interview because they break up the interviews and illustrate what they are talking about. They also avoid jump cuts when the questions are edited out so it makes the documentary more presentable and enjoyable
o The cutaways are archive materials and are suggested by something that is said in the interview and therefore films after the interview and they are then sometimes aspects of the interviewee which are filmed with another camera used for cutaways and different shot types

Practice!

We got into small groups and was preparing what we were going to do for a practice documentary. We had to discuss all the cutaway shots we were going to do, the setting of where we would film it and what we would be talking about. We planned every detail of the documentary down including the title.

These are the questions that the interviewer will be asking
1. Tell me what life was like before you had the mobile phone?
2. When did you get your first mobile phone?
3. Tell me about all the mobile phones you have had
4. Tell me about your current mobile phone
5. Why did you choose this mobile phone?
6. Tell me about the ringtone you have on your phone and why you chose it
7. What do you use your mobile for?
8. How much does your mobile cost a month?
9. How often do you send text messages?
10. What text 'language' do you use and how did you learn it?
11. What is the best thing about having a mobile phone?
12. What is the worst thing about having a mobile phone?
13. How important is your mobile phone to you?
14. How would you cope without your mobile phone?

My group:
Camera work and Voice overs: Matty
Interviewer: Val
Interviewee: Nikki (me)

We planned our documentary out on paper by creating a storyboard. This is to help us to know what we are doing. We put detail into the storyboard like where the scenery would be (e.g the common room), what would be on each clip, a description of the type of shot (e.g midshot), what will be on eachclip (e.g someone talking on the phone). This is to show us what we are going to be doing for each clip so that we never made any mistakes and so we know what we will be doing without wasting time. This took us around 1 lesson.

This is the storyboard:


Once we had done this we went and got all the equipment that we needed including a video camera, a tripod and a voice recorder. We started off doing the interview with different people and in different places and then realised that according to our codes and convections the interview has to be in the same place and we decided to stay with one interviewee. We started again and chose a classroom where it was quiet and had a interactive board that we could put a image on to look more professional and so they knew what the interview was based on. On the first day we did a practice and we didnt think that it was good enough to be used as the real footage. This is because it was finished, the angle was wrong as i was in the wrong position and also the lighting was quite dark. The second day we found out what was wrong with the first footage and knew how to do better on this day. We set up the camera on to the tripod so we could see what the screening would be like. We looked at what angle the camera would be at so we could get the right position. I needed to take up half of the camera. The room was too light so we had to mess with the lights and the blinds to try and get the lighting correct. We put one of our cutaways on the interactive board as the scenery and as the chair wasnt high enough for the screen, i had to sit on the table to make it high enough. We were then ready to start filming. Matty was on the video camera and made sure it was recording in the right places, Val started reading out the questions that are written above and i answered them. We had to redo some questions because they went wrong as i didnt know what to say or my words came out wrong. Once we finished doing the interview Matty then using the voice recorder starting recording the voice over that would be needed for the cutaways. This was done on the first go because it was fine. We had finally finished the recording part. We then uploaded all the footage to the computer. The third day and so on we were going to edit the footage to make the documentary. We edited with the program Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5. (picture below)

We loaded up the video into Adobe Premiere and zoomed in so that we could see and hear the right bit that we needed to crop out without making any mistakes. We decided that we didnt need all the questions so we only used half of them. We then edited out the other questions. Whilst we were editing we went on to google and searched for mobile phones so that we could use them in cutaways throughout the documentary so that the audience wouldnt be bored and to show more detail of the documentary.

These are the cutaways we used:

We used these two pictures to create the last image to use as the background for the interviews using Adobe Photoshop.

This is the program that we used to merge the images together so that they could create the last image.

We then needed to download the music to go on for the title sequence. To do this i used the program Zamzar.
After all this was done matty recorded the voiceover that was put on after the title sequence.

This is the documentary when we had finished:

This is the link of the documentary on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VTJdhwTsU

Mobile evaluation
My task was to create a mobile phone documentary. This was a practice before our real documentary so we could see what needs improving so the real one can be better and to also see what documentaries are really like so we can make sure we follow the correct codes and conventions. To do this I was put into a group of three. We planned what the right Mise-en scene would be and what cutaways we would show. For our Mise-en scene we chose a quiet classroom with an interactive board which featured an image of mobile phones. The planning was useful because it made it easier for us to put everything together which I know that in my real documentary will be useful because it will make it easier to make decisions and get everything done without wasting time though whilst we were doing the filming and editing we did change some of the ideas of our planning.

For my part I was the person that was getting interviewed. I think that when I was answering the questions my strengths were that I answered the questions in the full answers so that they could be clearly understood and my weaknesses were that I had little confidence and my voice wasn’t the right volume that it should be at as I was quite quiet. I also started to fidget during the second question which made the angle look different aswell as starting most of them off with an “erm”. This means that I know when I come to do my real documentary that I make sure that the interviewee speaks at a right volume and that they feel comfortable so they can feel confident. When it came to the filming I think that the lights made a huge difference as the interviewee that was me, was pretty dark and you weren’t able to see me because there was a dark shadow covering the image. We know though that next time we will need to shut out all the background lighting and have lights on to make sure everything is seen properly. The images on the board behind the interviewee followed the codes and conventions because it had something to do with what our documentary to remind the audience and the framing of the interview was correct as it was a medium close up. The codes and conventions state that the interviewer should not be seen and their questions shouldn’t be involved which is what we did when we edited it.

We did use cutaways that shown we were trying to follow the codes and conventions but we realised that we used them in the wrong way as they were meant to be whilst the interviewee was talking instead of after they had finished talking so when they came on there was no sound making the audience less interested so next time we will make sure that we use the cutaways appropriately so we can make sure they do their job of interesting the audience by putting them on whilst the interviewee is talking.

During the editing we weren’t experienced on using the program because it was new so we didn’t know the different things that we could do such as the different effects and how to cut so it took time but as we are now more experienced I think that we will be able to do better on our real documentary.

We realised that some of the codes and conventions weren’t followed correctly but at least we know that for next time, for our real one that we make sure that we closely look into making sure we follow them and that everything is looking like the documentaries on TV.